


In the Dead of the Night

by Fuzzypurplestuff



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Detectives, Famous Harry, Kid Fic, Kidnapping, M/M, Non-Famous Louis, Police
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-22
Updated: 2016-05-25
Packaged: 2018-04-27 13:45:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 60,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5050774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fuzzypurplestuff/pseuds/Fuzzypurplestuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Detective Louis Tomlinson gets assigned to investigate the kidnapping of a little girl, he gets more than he bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Missing You

**Author's Note:**

> A massive thank you to my beta/Britpickers the wonderful
> 
> [Lou](http://wariormum.tumblr.com), [Sheena](http://conscious--ramblings.tumblr.com) and [Sam](http://harrynialllouisandfreddietoo.tumblr.com)

Chapter 1

Missing You

“Tomlinson!” 

Louis Tomlinson looked up from the tip his desk had become when he heard his name yelled across the crowded squad room. “Yeah, boss?”

“My office.” Detective Chief Superintendent Ben Winston turned around and marched back into his office.

Louis looked across at his partner Liam Payne who just shrugged. “I don’t think we’ve done anything. Not recently anyway. I haven’t even seen anyone from the press in days.”

“Shit, I hope not. I have about three days worth of paperwork to finish on the Jenson and Fisher cases.” Louis straightened his tie and grabbed his jacket before heading to Winston’s office.

“Close the door please, Tommo.”

Louis relaxed slightly, if his SIO was using his nickname it couldn’t be anything too serious. Winston’s office reflected the man himself, everything was neat and tidy, and had an air of simple efficiency. 

Ben waved Louis into a seat and offered him a cup of tea. “I have a problem.”

“Okay?” 

“It’s the Styles case.”

Louis sat up straight. This wasn’t good. “Sir? Do you need Liam and I to join Rodgers’ team?” 

“No. I need you and Payne to gather your team, get the files from Rodgers and take over the case.”

“Sir?” Louis wasn’t completely surprised. It was no secret that things with the case had gone about as wrong as they could possibly go, but this was a drastic step.

“I hate doing this. But I can’t leave the current team in place.” Winston scrubbed his hand over his face. “I need you to put together a team you trust completely. I want the leaks to the press to stop now.”

“Sir, I–“ Louis stopped not sure how to ask what he wanted to know.

“Mister Styles is refusing to speak to Detective Sergeant Rodgers.”

“Well, Sir, to be fair, I’m not sure I blame him after yesterday’s debacle.” 

“Neither do I. Which is why I want you to seal that fucking leak! I don’t care how you do it. Keep your team small, people you know and trust only. I don’t want another body because we keep stepping on our own dicks!” 

“Sir?”

Ben handed Louis a file. “They found the nanny this morning.”

Louis opened the folder. There were several crime scene photos showing Penny Dempsey, the Styles’ long time nanny, naked, wet and very clearly dead. “Shit!” Louis flipped through the rest of the photos before he got to the report. “Broken neck. Did they find anything? Any sign of Jamie?”

“Not much. As you can see she was stripped and thrown in the river. Best guess, because of the water and cold, is she’s been dead less than twenty-four hours.” Winston rolled his shoulders. “Bloomfield thinks she was alive yesterday morning. The press is going to have a field day with this. I want you to go into this with fresh eyes. Treat it like a new investigation. Start from scratch. Go back over everything. The files are being sent to you as we speak, all the physical evidence will be made available to you. Find that little girl.”

“Yes, sir.” Louis stood and started for the door.

“Oh, and Louis?”

“Sir?”

“Anything, and I mean even so much as the colour of Harry Styles’ shoes, ends up in the press? It’s on your head. No more leaks!”

“Yes, sir.”

**********

“This stops now.” Louis slammed into the conference room and dumped a stack of tabloids on the table.

“Lou?” Liam looked up from where he was divvying up the stack of files on the Styles case.

Louis waved a tabloid with a headline that screamed ‘Pop Super Star Harry Styles a Killer?’ “The leaks stop here. If something needs to go to the press, it goes through me. Everything. No one speaks to the press. No one. Not a word. Understood?” Everyone in the room nodded. “Good, now, let’s find Jamie Styles.”

 

Half an hour later they were all working their way through the files when silence in the room was broken. “For fuck’s sake!” Liam threw the folder he was reading on the table. “Lou, toss me the file on the nanny?”

Louis sorted through the files in front of him and slid the correct one down the table to his partner. “What’d you find?”

Liam held up a hand. “Gimme a sec.”

Louis turned to his right. “You got anything, Stan?”

Detective Constable Stan Lucas shook his head. “Other than Rodgers keeps the worst notes I’ve ever seen? No.”

Louis looked down at the files he had been studying, he had filled each with dozens of sticky notes with questions he needed answered. Rodgers had, as was standard in a missing child case, first focused on the parent, but in this case it seemed to be his only avenue of investigation. “Yeah, that’s about what I got too. Andy?”

Andy Samuels didn’t even bother to look up. “I got fuck all.”

“When was the evidence supposed to get here?” Stan asked.

“Winston said within the hour.” Louis picked up another file and started reading, once again making notes regarding missing or sparse information.

“Fucking morons!” Liam exploded. 

“You ready to share yet, mate?”

“Someone on that team is incompetent, maybe all of them.” He slid two files down the table to Louis. “They manag–“

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Calvin Rodgers barged into the room.

“Excuse me?” Louis stood to meet the taller man.

“Those are my files.” Rodgers grabbed one of the notebooks from the box. “And my notes. Who authorised this?”

Louis grabbed the note book back and threw it on the table. “First, those notes and files belong to the case, second, go talk to DCS Winston.” 

“What the fuck, Lou?”

“I’m just doing the job.”

Rodgers stepped closer to Louis. “Fuck that. I was doing the job just fine.” 

Louis shot a glare over his shoulder when he heard someone on his team snort. He picked up the tabloids. “Is this you doing the job, Cal?” He selected one and read. “‘Harry Styles chief suspect in daughter’s disappearance, say police sources.”

Rodgers snatched the paper from Louis’ hand and shouldered him out of the way to toss it across the room in the direction of the rubbish bin. “It’s fucking tab trash, it’s not like I can control what they print.”

The silence in the room was stifling as Louis’ team waited to see how he would react.

Louis just clenched his jaw took a deep breath and picked up another paper with a massive EXCLUSIVE! plastered across it. “There’s a video of you outing the man, Rodgers. You were laughing about it with your mates and if that wasn’t stupid enough, you let someone record it.”

“So now I’m not allowed to have a laugh with my friends?”

Louis just stared at him, dumbfounded. “Are you fucking serious?” He gave up, turned his back on Rodgers and returned to his seat. “Go talk to Ben, Cal.”

“Fine, you’ll find the same thing I did. That fancy-faced poof killed his kid to stop her from telling people he diddled her.” Rodgers slammed the door behind him.

Louis sighed. “What was it you were saying, Li?”

Liam cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah, okay. Rodgers and his band of chimps missed that Penny Dempsey’s older brother Bobby, worked, for Joe Donahue.”

Louis closed his eyes and shook his head. 

Liam nodded. “Yeah, no one followed up with the NCA either.”

“Okay, Stan get in touch with the NCA.” Louis ordered.. “See what Zayn’s got on the brother. Andy, you stay here and wait for the evidence. I want to go over it all again tonight. Piece by piece. Make sure you check all the numbers, I don’t want anything to be mislaid. I want Jonny and Alice over at the scene to take over for the team that’s there on the phones, I don’t want any of Rodgers’ people left in place. Glenne should be here soon, get her working on the background of anyone who has ever worked in that house.” He gathered up his jacket, and stuffed his laptop and files into his satchel. “I don’t care if all they ever did was deliver groceries, I want to know the names of their childhood pets.”

“Where you going, boss?”

“Liam and I are going to hope we can get Harry Styles to let us back in his house.”

 

***************

 

Half an hour later Louis and Liam pulled up in front of Harry Styles’ impressive Hampstead home. “Can you imagine living like this?” Liam nodded at the crowd of paparazzi, reporters, and weeping teenagers across the street.

Louis just sneered in the direction of what he considered human vultures. “I think I’d be tempted to turn a fire-hose on the lot of them.”

As soon as the detectives got out of their car the reporters started yelling. “Are you working on the case”

“Do you think Harry killed Jamie?”

“Detective Inspector, do you think Harry Styles molested his daughter?”

Louis turned to the uniformed officer standing at the gate. “Has anyone tried to get rid of that lot?”

“No, sir. DS Rodgers said they were just doing their job.” 

“Of course he did. Well–“ Louis checked the younger man’s name tag. “Constable Daniels, let’s see what we can do to get Mister Styles a bit more privacy and stop the riff-raff from cluttering up the street, yeah?”

“Yes, sir.” Daniels smiled. “I’ll get on that right away, sir.”

“Good man. Now, if you would call up to the house and let them know I’m here, I would appreciate it.”

Daniels radioed to the uniformed officer stationed at the house. “Can you let Mister Styles know that Detective Inspector Tomlinson and Detective Sergeant Payne are here to see him.”

Louis nodded. “Thank you Daniels.” He glanced across the road. “Good luck.”

Louis and Liam made their way up the front path. “This is quite the place.” Liam looked up at the massive home, its brown stone facade towering three stories above the beautifully manicured front garden. “Must be nice.”

“Yeah, nice.” Louis snorted. “He’s essentially trapped in here. Did you see that nonsense last spring at his old house. A hundred teen-age girls blockading his drive because he was supposedly shacked up in there with that singer, you know, the annoying American one, looks like a chipmunk? It took three days to get rid of them, no one knew quite what to do about them, can’t exactly sick the riot squad on a bunch of little girls armed with iphones.”

Liam stopped to stare at him. “Why do you know that?” 

“First, I have younger sisters, second I watch the news and third, I’ve done a little research since this case started.”

“You knew Rodgers would fuck it up.”

“I wouldn’t trust Calvin Rodgers to investigate how a cat got up a tree.” Louis thrust his hands in his pockets. “If we hadn’t been tied up with the Fisher case it would have been us from the beginning and I wouldn’t be trying to undo all the damage Rodgers has done at the same time I’m trying to find Jamie Styles.” They stopped when the front door opened and a man they both recognised stepped out.

“May I help you, gentlemen?” Simon Cowell had come out onto the portico and closed the door behind him.

Louis shook the offered hand. “Detective Inspector Louis Tomlinson, Camden CID, and this is my partner Detective Sergeant Liam Payne.” 

Cowell shook Liam’s hand. “Look. I know you–“

“Sir, if I may.” Louis interrupted gently. “I know Mister Styles isn’t inclined to speak to us. I understand why that is. However, DS Payne and I, with our team, will be handling Jamie’s case from now on.”

“Well you’re one step ahead of that idiot Rodgers already.”

“I’m sorry?”

“He never referred to Jamie by name. Only called her the girl or the case.”

Louis took a slow, careful breath. “I’m sorry to hear that, sir. I can promise you, my only priority is to find out what happened to Jamie and Penny.”

Simon studied him for a moment. Louis stayed carefully still, aware how powerful this man was and that he could make the job much more difficult. Cowell’s eyes flickered briefly to Liam then back to Louis. “I’ll speak to Harry. But understand, he is distraught. Jamie is his life and that fool Rodgers spent more time judging Harry’s private life than he did worrying about what happened to his daughter.”

“Yes, sir. But you have to understand, I will be asking Mister Styles some difficult questions. I’m coming into this cold and I may have questions DS Rodgers didn’t ask.”

“Of that I have no doubt. But please,” Cowell’s voice softened. “At least try to remember this is a terrified father you are dealing with. I would be willing to put everything I have against Harry having nothing to do with this. He adores that child, and would sooner die than see her harmed.”

“We’ll keep that in mind.”

Cowell nodded. “Good then, come in.”

Simon settled them in what clearly Styles’ work space. The gleaming grand piano, elegant antique desk and assortment of guitars said this was likely where he wrote the songs that made him famous.

Louis took all of this in as he waited for their host. “He’s made room for her in his space.” He observed out loud. He picked a colouring book off a child’s size copy of the desk and took in a wide selection of children’s books on the mahogany shelves that covered each wall. “She’s in here while he works.”

“Why wouldn’t she be?” Louis turned to see Harry Styles’ standing in the doorway. “She’s my daughter.”

“Harry, this is Detective Inspector Louis Tomlinson, and Detective Sergeant Liam Payne.” Cowell entered the room around the star. 

“Mister Styles.” Louis greeted. “We’ll be looking after Jamie’s case from here on out.”

Harry shook Louis’ proffered hand. “Simon tells me you have more questions for me?”

“Yes, I’m sorry about that, but even the smallest detail, something you may not even think of as important could help us put together a picture of what happened.”

“Yeah, okay. I just–“ Harry stopped and sighed. “Okay, here? Now?”

“The sooner we get it done the sooner we can get to work.” Louis offered gently. “Liam, DS Payne, is going to start with a few standard questions. Is that okay?”

Harry nodded and indicated that they should sit. Once they were settled Simon left to arrange tea. 

While Liam led Harry through a series of predetermined questions, Louis observed. It was a tactic that had served them well since they started working together, Liam kept the subject’s attention on him. His quiet voice and gentle manner putting them at ease and softening his increasingly invasive questions leaving Louis free to take mental notes about his demeanor and physical appearance. The fact that he had not requested the presence of his solicitor was a surprise to Louis and would likely come as an equal surprise to the solicitor once he found out. While he was understandably tense, Styles didn’t appear nervous or evasive. He was answering the questions thoughtfully and carefully, he made eye contact with Liam and seemed more concerned with his tea than with Louis. What was clear was that he was exhausted. 

“Mister Styles?” Louis interrupted.

Harry looked up at Louis, his dull green eyes ringed by dark purple bruises. “Please, just, just call me Harry, it’s too much, I– it’s just– it’s Harry.”

Louis understood that the formality could seem a bit oppressive. “I can do that, Harry. When was the last time you had something to eat, a shower and sleep?”

Liam hid his surprise behind his notebook, while Harry just looked at Louis as though he hadn’t understood the question. “I’m sorry?”

“Food, a shower and sleep. When was the last time you did any of those things?”

Harry reached a trembling hand up to touch his hair, the dark curls one of his most recognisable and celebrated features were tied back in a greasy ponytail. “I– I– don’t, I can’t. Jamie. . .”

Louis moved to sit next to him on the settee, up close he could see Harry’s skin had taken on a greyish cast and appeared to have broken out slightly. “To find Jamie, we’re going to need your help. Right now you’re so run down you’re having trouble concentrating on the simple questions DS Payne is asking you. If we leave for now, I need you to have a decent meal, a hot shower and a night’s sleep. I don’t care what you have to do, you need to sleep, because we need you to help us bring Jamie home, yeah?”

Harry just blinked at him. “Do you really think. . .” Those tired eyes filled with tears. “Do you really think you can find her?”

“What I know for certain is that I can’t do it without you.” Louis evaded smoothly.

Harry nodded. “Okay, uh.” He looked around the room as though he was no longer sure where he was. “I think Niall is here. . . somewhere.”

“Okay, let me see if I can find someone.” Louis left the room and found Simon Cowell hovering just outside the door with a blonde man who appeared to be about the same age as Harry. 

“Excuse me, gentlemen?”

Cowell was the first to react. “Are you done with him?”

“For now.” Louis held up a hand when they both started for the office. “Hold up.”

They stopped and faced him.

“Is one of you staying here with Mister Styles?”

The younger man nodded. “Yeah, I am.” The distinct music of Ireland coloured his voice. “Niall Horan. Is there something you need?” 

Louis recognised the name from the files. Niall was Harry’s best friend and lead guitarist for his touring band. “Yes. We’re done with him for the evening, he can’t answer anything more. He needs to eat, shower, and sleep, then eat again.”

“You don’t think we’ve been trying?” Horan’s accent got stronger as his voice got louder.

“I’m sure you have.” Louis reassured calmly. “However, he now seems on board with the idea so. . . If you could arrange some food and maybe something to help him rest. That would be most appreciated.”

“We’ll take care of it.” Cowell promised.

“Thank you.” Louis started to walk away but was stopped by Niall Horan’s hand on his arm. 

“May I ask why all of a sudden The Met seems to give two shits about Harry’s well-being?” 

“Because if I’m going to bring Jamie home and find whoever took her and killed Penny Dempsey, I’m going to need the help of the person who knows Jamie best. I’m assuming that’s her father, and right now he’s in no fit shape to do anything, let alone aid in finding his child.”

Horan scrubbed his hand through his bleached blonde hair. “It’s just, that other fu– detective you sent, seemed more bent on proving Harry did something wrong than finding Jamie.” 

“Yes, well, my only concern is finding Jamie and bringing her home, safely.”

“Do you really think she’s still alive?” 

Louis and Niall turned to see Harry standing in the doorway with Liam.

“To be honest, Mis-- er Harry, I have no way of knowing right now. However,” He continued quickly. “Whoever took them made no real effort to hide Ms Dempsey. Leaving her in the water appears to be a more of a forensic countermeasure than an attempt to hide her. Right now, everyone is going to be operating under the assumption that Jamie is alive and we are working to bring her home.”

“Okay– good, that– that’s good.” 

Niall moved to his friend’s side. “Hey, Haz, DI Tomlinson tells me you’re going to try to eat and rest?”

Harry nodded shakily. “He said he needs my help to bring Jamie home, so, I– I need to sleep so I can help them.” He turned those exhausted eyes back to Louis and Liam. “Yeah?”

“Yes. We need you well rested and fed, so we can go over everything with you, every little detail counts.”

Niall wrapped an arm around Harry’s waist. “Well then we should get you food and sleep.” He pretended to sniff. “And yeah, a shower wouldn’t hurt.”

Harry leaned into his friend, the faintest ghost of his famous smile tugging at his lips. “Thanks, Nialler.”

“We’ll show ourselves out.” Louis shook hands with the all three men. “We’ll be back tomorrow. I’m going to want my team to go over the scene, just to put some fresh eyes on it.”

Harry held Louis’ hand tight. “Thank you. For the first time since this happened, I think we– that she–.” He stuttered to a stop. “I just want my baby to come home.”

“That’s why I’m here.” Louis nodded to the others and followed Liam out the door.

Once they were alone in the car both men took a deep breath. “Fuck, I hate missing kids!” Louis slammed his hand on the steering wheel.

“If that man had anything to do with his daughter going missing, I’ll eat my badge.” Liam growled. “Rodgers is a fucking idiot.”

“Yeah? You saw it too?”

“Yeah, he’s not afraid of us, at all, rather he’s terrified he’s never going to see that little girl again.” Liam dropped his head back against the seat. “It’s the broken parents that get me, you know?”

“Me too. But it’s really fucking awesome when we bring the kids home, so let’s do that, yeah?”

 

By the time Louis and Liam returned to the office the other members of their team had finished setting up the conference room.

“So, what do we know that Rodgers didn’t?” Louis asked as he took his seat at the table. 

“Other than he is an unmitigated jackass who never met a camera he didn’t love?” Snipped Detective Sergeant Glenne Christiansen. She had her head down over her computer working background on everyone who may have come in contact with Jamie or her nanny.

“Yeah, other than that.”

“Well.” Andy began, moving to the white board they had set up outlining the time line and the names of everyone who had been interviewed thus far. “He had the time line screwed up. According to him, Styles was at home with the little girl all night. Yet in Styles’ statement and according to the three hundred people who saw him there and the dozen or so tabloids who covered it, Harry Styles was at a fund-raiser all evening.”

“Jamie.”

“Boss?”

“Her name is Jamie. We don’t call our victim the little girl or the baby or the victim for that matter, her name is Jamie.”

“You got it, boss.”

Louis stood and went to the board. “So according to this, Styles was out all evening, leaving Jamie alone with Penny?”

“Yes.”

“Did he check on her when he got home?”

“I don’t know.” Andy held up a file. “As far as I can see, he was never asked.”

“No one thought to ask her father what time he last saw Jamie before she went missing?” Louis asked incredulously.

Andy shook his head. “Not that I can find. He was asked about his whereabouts at the time she went missing and since it was between midnight and seven in the morning he said he was in bed, asleep.”

“How do they know what time it was?”

“The sprinklers come on at midnight. There were footprints left in the garden outside the window used for entry. Mister Styles’ assistant woke him at seven for a video shoot. He checked on the– on Jamie just before he was going to leave and she was gone. We were called at seven-fifty-two”

“Okay, so I need to talk to him about what happened between the time he got home at. . .?”

Andy consulted the board. “Eleven-thirty.”

“Okay, what about the alarm system. I know they have one, I saw it. Was it armed?”

“According to Mister Styles’ assistant it wasn’t when she got there that morning, but Mister Styles insists he turned it on and according to the alarm company.” Andy flipped through the papers. “It was armed at twenty-three-twenty-two, then, for fucks sake, disarmed at zero-forty-seven.”

“So we do have a narrower time line.”

“Yeah, we do, another thing that Rodgers messed up. They didn’t bother to rearm it after they left.”

“Okay. Good.” Louis grabbed a pen and added the alarm information to the time-line. “So we know when they entered. And through which window?”

Andy handed him the crime scene photos taken outside a ground floor window. It was taken in the back garden and showed the window above a flower bed as well as a glass double door.

“I didn’t see much of the house tonight, why this window?” 

Andy grabbed the blueprint of the house. “As far as I can see it was the closest to the back stairs. And is right next to the back door.”

“Why the window?”

“Boss?”

“Why the window and not the door. They had to deactivate the alarm. I’m assuming the key pad is next to the door, so why go in through the window?” Louis paced in front to the white board, “It could be as simple as the lock being an easier pick, but I want a close look at both the door and the window.”

Andy was taking notes. 

“I want the complete schematic for that system from the alarm company. I thought I saw cameras in the garden. Do we have those recordings?”

“Not that I’ve found.”

Louis sighed. “Okay, then I need to know what happened to them. A place like that with grounds like that, I’d be willing to bet there are motion detectors and I know there was a keypad at the front gate, I saw it. Get on the blower with that alarm company, get them to send someone out to go over the system with you.”

“On it, boss.” Andy pocketed his notebook and left the room.

Louis turned to the young woman still head down over her computer. “Whadya got for me G?”

“Not much. Styles was really careful about who he let in his home and near his daughter.”

“There has to be something.”

“All of his direct employees are clean as far as I can tell. Even the trades he’s had come in to do work on the house have to be carefully vetted.” She sat back stretching her arms over her head. “Everyone, and I mean everyone signs an NDA, before they do anything for him.”

“Not so strange in his business, especially if you’re in the closet.”

“Yeah, that’s what I figured.” She twisted her mouth around a bit. “I really hate to ask, but I kind of have to.”

“What’s up?” Louis perched a hip on the table. 

Glenne’s cheeks went a bit pink. “What’s he like?” She asked meekly.

Louis eyebrows shot up. “Distraught.”

“Yeah, sorry, I shouldn’t–“

“Hey, it’s fine.” Louis patted her shoulder. “That really is the only answer I can give you. He is so completely devastated I’m not sure he was even fully aware we were there.”

“So he’s not a suspect?”

“I can’t rule him out yet, but if I had to say, no, he had nothing to do with it.”

“Good.”

“You’re a fan?”

“It’s not just that, I hate it when it’s the parents. It makes it all so much worse.”

“Yeah, I get that.” Louis dropped into the chair across from her. “What about Penny Dempsey?”

“You think a man who vets his plumber isn’t going to do a background check on his nanny?”

“Her brother’s employment by Joe Donahue didn’t mean anything to him.”

“He probably didn’t know who the hell Joe Donahue was past being a business man.”

Louis tipped his chair back on two legs and stared up at the ceiling. “Okay, fair enough. Someone in that house, or who had been in that house, had to get them the information they needed to get in and out, with a six year old girl and a twenty-five year old woman, without waking anyone else up.”

He dropped his chair back onto all its legs, stood and went back to the board. “Who else was in the house?”

Glenne shook her head. “I don’t know, Andy would have that. Or it should be on the board.” She pointed to the bottom left. “There.”

“So, Harry, Jamie, Penny. That’s it. Niall was out for the night.”

Glenne cleared her throat. “So um, are Harry and Niall. . .”

Louis turned to glare at her. “I didn’t get that impression, but I also didn’t ask.”

“But you will.”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “I’m going to have to. Aren’t I?”

“This is going to be a tough one isn’t it, I mean even beyond how much they suck when it’s kids?”

“Yeah, thanks to that fuckwit Rodgers we already have a problem with the press, and the fact that the lead investigator outed our victim’s superstar father.” 

Glenne returned to her computer while Louis started in on another file. “Has anyone checked his mail?”

Glenne smirked. “I’m not sure we have the manpower for that.”

Louis thought about it for moment. “You’re likely right, but I need to know if his people keep any threatening or otherwise problematic correspondence.” He searched through the notes he had available. “I don’t see anything about it here.” 

“Calvin really had decided Harry did it, hadn’t he.”

“That would get him the most camera time, of course that’s the trail he followed.” Louis sighed. “I just wish I knew exactly what he’s put out there.” He turned to Glenne , a sweet smile on his face.

“Lou, no.”

“G, yes.”

“But–“

“Tell him he can have the exclusive when we break the case, that’s it, nothing during or Winston will have me pilloried.”

“Fine. But I want it on the record that I hate doing this.”

“Blah blah, like he doesn’t do the same thing to you.”

“Shut up.”

Louis and Glenne were still pointedly ignoring each other when Liam came in a few minutes later. “Stan talked to–“ he looked at the two at the table. “What now?”

“Louis’ making me ask Jeff about what Rodgers has put out to the press.”

“So?”

“Shut up.”

Liam shook his head and continued. “Anyway. Stan talked to Zayn and as far as they know Bobby Dempsey’s only connection to Joe Donahue was working in one of his restaurants one summer while he was at Uni.”

“Shit.” Louis got up and went to the white board. “So there’s nothing at all to connect Donahue?”

“Nothing. It was literally three months, four years ago. Bobby’s a primary school teacher in Worthing now.”

Louis drew a line through Joe Donahue’s name.

“However.” Liam smirked. “Penny had a young man.”

“And?”

“Well it seems young David Kirkland has a bit of a past.”

“Oh really?”

“Hmhmm. He has some school friends his current employers at the paper mill might not be too happy about.” 

“Associations?”

“Yeah, Luka Danova.”

Louis dropped the pen. “Holy fuck!” 

“Yeah, that’s pretty much what I said.” Liam agreed. “Zayn was going to see what he could get me. If Penny got mixed up with that lot. . .”

“Yeah, I think I’d rather it was Donahue. He’s just your garden variety career criminal, Danova’s a fucking psychopath.” Louis scrubbed his prickly jaw. "Damn."

“He’s also the type to make more of a spectacle about Penny’s body though.”

“Yeah, but if Jamie was end game and Penny was just baggage. . . “ Louis glared at the white board for a few seconds. “Tell Stan to sit on Zayn– where is Stan by the way?” 

“Sitting on Zayn.”

“Ah, good man. I’m going to need someone to contact Styles’ people to see if they keep track of any threatening or otherwise problematic mail he gets sent.” 

“I can do that.” Liam handed Louis another file. “This is everything we have on Harry.”

Louis weighed the thick file in his hand. “How much of it is relevant?”

“I guess it depends on whether you still have him on the suspect list?”

“Because. . .?”

“Because despite being about the biggest deal on the planet right now, he’s had it kind of tough.”

“Bullet points,” Louis sat back down, “only the stuff Google won’t tell me.”

“He was raised in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire.”

“Google.”

“Okay, his mum, step-dad and sister were all killed in a car accident when he was nineteen. He had just signed his record deal after coming off the X-Factor. Gemma, his sister, was three years older than him and had just given birth three months earlier. She and their parents had gone to the shops leaving Harry home to look after little–“

“Jamie.”

“Yeah.”

“She’s not his.”

“Nope.”

“Was this in Rodgers’ files?”

“Nope, I got most of this from the stuff Mister Cowell sent over after we left.”

“Okay.” Louis plucked at his lip thoughtfully. “What else?”

“He fought hard to get custody of Jamie. They wanted to take her into care, as he was only nineteen and was just starting out in his music career. He was seriously considering scrapping music and going to uni so he could have a more normal life for the baby.”

“Biological father?”

“Bolted when Gemma found out she was pregnant, happily signed his parental rights away to Harry.”

“Hmmm.” Louis made a note. "We should check him anyway. Millions of dollars might go a long way to repairing the parental bond.

Liam nodded. “I have his info. Anyway, Cowell threw his weight and his millions behind Harry and he eventually got custody.”

“How the hell did they keep this out of the press? He was everywhere after the X-Factor. My sisters prattled on about him incessantly. All I remember is it was kind of a big deal when it was revealed he had a kid. But everyone kind of chalked it up to a– “ Louis stopped for a moment. “–youthful indiscretion is the term they seemed to like.”

Liam handed Louis a couple of sheets from the file. “This all happened between the tour and his first album, so while his name may have been out there, this was all happening in the background.”

“But how did they keep it quiet?”

“Money. A lot of money. They managed to keep his sexuality off the books until Rodgers stepped on his own dick.”

“I don’t think that secret is as hard to keep as some might think. There are a lot of people in the closet in that industry.” Glenne interjected. “The press don’t go there, a little bit because it’s the right thing to do, but mostly because they don’t want to lose access.”

“You asked Jeff about it?” Louis asked as he flipped through the file.

“Yeah, when that recording showed up. I asked him whether he knew about Harry. He said he didn’t know anything solid but that everyone knew his reputation was bullshit and his girlfriends were all PR stunts, so there were whispers, but Harry was apparently really discreet.”

“Hmm.” Louis turned his attention back to Liam. “What else?”

“As far as I can tell, and mind I’ve only had this a couple of hours, it wasn’t so much discretion as that he’s only he had two semi-serious relationships in the last few years, but that’s about it.”

Louis chuckled. “So this kid they set up as this over-sexed junior Casanova, has had two boyfriends.”

“Not just two boyfriends, everything I can find says these two guys are the only people Harry had any kind of intimate relationship with.”

“Oh, wow. Okay. So, he adopts– did he adopt– so he adopts his sister’s infant daughter when he’s nineteen, he’s stuck in an industry where his target demographic means he has to stay in the closet and in order to reinforce the closet they set him up as this womanising creep, but he’s had two intimate relationships in–?”

“Five years.”

“Five years.”

“Everything I can find about him is glowing. I can’t find anyone willing to say anything bad about him. All I get is that he’s a real sweetheart. He treats the people who work for him like family. He’s godfather to his hair stylist’s six-year-old. He’s had all the same people around him from the beginning, they are loyal to him and adore Jamie. Every single person. All of them.” Liam shook his head, clearly confounded. “I’ve never had that happen before.”

“Well there’s usually an ex or two you can count on for a lot of muck and hate.” Louis offered wryly. “What about the guys he was seeing?”

“Nope. Both said he was lovely, one said he wasn’t ready for the whole family thing and the other had no problem with the kid but Harry was on the road all the time so it didn’t work out.”

“Okay, well we weren’t really thinking they were good for this anyway, but it makes it harder to nail down suspects when everyone adores your victims. Keep digging,” Louis paced back and forth in front of the white board. “It’s not money, there’s been no demand as yet. Who’s on social media?”

“That’ll be me, until Stan gets back.” Glenne volunteered. “We could use another computer hand. He has an absolutely massive social media presence, it’ll take one person just to handle that.”

“I’ll see if I can get El, to come in.” Louis turned back to the board. “Okay, so, we have a single father with absolutely no enemies, at all, a missing six year old, and a dead nanny. So far the only person who might even be considered dangerous is a total psychopath who went to school with the dead nanny’s boyfriend. Is that where we are?” 

“Yeah. That’s pretty much it, Lou.” Liam flopped into a chair. “How can we have no real suspects. Someone has to hate this guy.”

Louis started flipping through the larger file they had put together. “Where’s the house-to-house?”

Liam sorted through his stuff. “I don’t have one?”

“Hang on. ” Louis made a phone call, tapping his pen on the table impatiently. “Yeah, Luke, I’m not seeing the results of the house-to-house in the Styles case, did you guys send everything over?” The tapping stopped. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.” He got to his feet and started to pace. “I don’t care what he said. It’s standard fucking procedure. You follow– you know what? Forget it.” Louis hung up and dropped his phone on the table.

“Let me guess? No house-to-house?”

“Yeah, apparently, since the grounds are so big and the fence is so high, and the time it happened, that fucking moron thought a house-to-house wasn’t necessary. Get–“ Louis stopped when he saw Liam was already on his phone, giving the order for a house-to-house of the neighbourhood around Harry Styles’ home. “And make sure they ask about CCTV footage. Neighbourhood like that, places like that, they’re bound to have security cameras.”

Liam nodded and gave the instructions as ordered.

“Well, we need to see his mail, talk to whoever is in charge of that type of thing, G, if you could start looking at social media, see if anyone is saying anything. I’m going to see if I can get El to lend a hand with the computer work. Don’t forget to give Jeff a call and find out what’s out there, and what of it was put out there by Rodgers. Li, just keep wading through all this.” Louis waved to indicate the pile on the table. “I’m going to head over to the lab to see what Cazza has to say.”

*******

“Sweet Caroline!” Louis sang as he entered the forensics lab. “Light of my life, sparkle in my eye, queen of–“

“Give over, Tommo.” Caroline Watson scoffed from behind her mask. She stepped away from the specimen she was working on . “What do you need?”

“I’m on the Styles case.”

“Oh, thank God.”

Louis blinked at her. 

“I mean I don’t have to deal with that fool Rodgers and maybe that poor little girl will get to go home.”

“Let’s hope.” He leaned against her desk. “So, do you have anything new?”

“Not a lot, I’m still waiting on DNA for the hairs found. We’re still tracking down the boot that left the print. There were, as you know, no outside fingerprints. We found small traces of talc so they were probably wearing latex gloves.” She took off her own gloves. “I’m sorry, Lou, there just wasn’t much there, they got in and out clean.”

“How much time did you have at the scene?”

“As much as Rodgers tried to rush me, I did my job, Lou.”

Louis scrubbed a hand over his face. “Yeah, I know, I was just hoping maybe he’d run you off and there’d be reason for you to go back.”

“There is one thing. We never found where they entered the garden.” She picked up what appeared to be a crudely drawn map. “By the time we got there, Rodgers and his idiots were already encamped. I drew this as a rough working sketch to start the survey, but Rodgers insisted they had come in through the front gate.”

“I didn’t see anything in any of the files to indicate that.” He took out his notepad.

“Far as I know, there isn’t anything. He assumed because they had the code for the house alarm they also had the one for the gate.”

“But, even if they did, at that time of the morning it would be too big a risk to take them out onto the busier street, the lanes to the east and north would make much more sense.”

“That was my thought too.” Caroline agreed.

“Okay, I want your people back over there tomorrow. Find where they came over that fence.” 

“If it’s there, I’ll find it.”


	2. Little Girl Lost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive thank you to my beta/Britpickers the wonderful
> 
> [Lou](http://wariormum.tumblr.com), [Sheena](http://conscious--ramblings.tumblr.com) and Sam

Chapter 2

 

Louis entered the interview room later that evening and greeted the young man seated at the table. “Thank you for coming in so late, David,” Louis took a seat opposite the clearly nervous young man. “Tell me about Penny.”

“Penny? She’s uh, she’s you know, my girl.” David Kirkland wiped his hands on his jeans, he was a handsome young man with dark hair and bright blue eyes that darted nervously around the room. “She uh, went um, missing with Jamie, you know, Harry Styles’ kid. But you guys are so, like worried about Jamie, nobody cares about Pen. And you should be looking for her too. She’s important too.”

Louis looked up abruptly. “David. Has anyone talked to you about Penny today?” He asked gently.

“Huh? No.” David shook his head. “Just that dou- er DS the other day. He was kinda a jerk too. He kept saying Pen had something to do with it, but no way. Pen wouldn’t hurt a kid, ‘specially not Jamie, she really loves that kid. And like, Mister Styles is cool too. He treats Pen real good, she gets lots of time off and Mister Styles, well Harry, he always says it’s okay for me to come visit her. He’s cool, like I said. A nice guy, real, you know, not up himself like you’d think, being so famous and rich so young. He’s a good guy and Jamie’s a real cute kid, always minds Penny.”

Louis ran his hand over his face, this what not what he was expecting to have to do when he scheduled this interview. Someone was going to answer for this. “David. I’m sorry. We found Penny.”

David stood up. “When? Shit, why’d nobody tell me? Is she okay, can I see her?”

“David.” Louis got to his feet. “I need you to sit back down, please.” He laid a gentle hand on David’s shoulder and kneeled by his side. “I’m sorry, David, Penny’s gone. We found her by the river in Woolwich this morning.”

David’s face fell and went startlingly pale. “What?” His voice cracked. “That’s– no– she can’t be. She– she can’t.” His eyes filled with tears then overflowed.

Louis handed him a tissue. “I’m sorry, I assumed you’d been told.” He went back to his seat to give the other man some space as he tried to get control of his emotions.

David kept shaking his head. “Are– are you sure– you don’t know her, maybe– I don’t know– you got it wrong– “ 

Louis watched the younger man carefully. “David, we’re sure. Her mother identified her.”

David’s face crumpled. “Oh.” He started to sob.

Louis waited patiently for the storm to pass. Once David seemed to have himself under control, Louis started gently. “I know this is difficult for you, David, but it could help us find who hurt Penny and maybe even bring Jamie home.”

“Okay.” David sniffled then blew his nose. “I can help. Penny’d want me to help find Jamie, she really loves that kid.” His voice broke.

“Okay, that’s good.” Louis opened his notebook. “ Now, can you tell me about your relationship to Luka Danova?”

David looked up sharply. “Luka? I– why would you wanna know about him?”

“Just checking everyone off the list.”

“Yeah?” David thought about it for a minute. “I guess that makes sense. Luka’s an old school mate.”

“Okay. Are you still friends?”

“I see him around. Back in the neighbourhood and stuff, but we don’t hang out or nothin.”

“No, you’re not friends anymore?”

David shook his head. “Nah, Luka’s, well, Luka kinda went a bit– I gotta good job and a good girl and Luka’s kinda bad news, you know.”

Louis nodded. “Yes he is. So you say you only see him around. When was the last time you talked to him?”

David blew out a long breath. “Let me see, uh, it’s been a while, I’ve been working a lot and spending all my time with Pen, so maybe– oh hey, yeah I remember. It was just before we went to America!”

“You went to America?”

“Yeah. Harry, Mister Styles, he was going on tour, and since Jamie was going, Penny was too. She was kinda like, sad that we were going to be apart for so long, so Mister Styles brought me over for a couple a’ weeks.”

Louis blinked. “He paid for your trip.”

“Yeah, I told you, he’s a total class guy.”

Louis shook his head. “Okay. So you saw Luka before you went?”

“Yeah. I was in Breakers, that’s out local.”

Louis nodded, every cop in the city knew about Breakers. “And you spoke to Luka?’

“Yeah. Hadn’t seen him in a couple of years, so we had a beer.” David fidgeted with the tissue he was holding. “Luka used to be a real good guy, now he’s mostly just scary.” 

“Yeah? How?”

David shrugged. “He got into really bad stuff after school. He uh–“ David seemed to realise who he was speaking to. “He just, he’s not a guy you wanna piss off is all.”

“Okay.” Louis left it at that, already well aware of why making Luka Danova angry was a bad idea. “So, what did you and Luka talk about?”

“I dunno, stuff. People we went to school with and sh– er stuff. Like a said, I hadn’t seen him in a while.”

“Did you tell him about your trip?”

“Yeah, of course!” David nodded smiling for the first time since Louis had broken the news. “It was cool. Never been there before. I was going to Los Angeles and Las Vegas and a bunch of other places. Staying in really swank hotels, Mister Styles always likes them because the security is better there, they don’t let his fans in and shit. His fans can get, like, really wild.”

“So Luka was aware that you knew Mister Styles.”

“Well, yeah, how else could someone like me afford a trip like that?”

“Okay. Did Luka know Penny?”

“No!” David exclaimed, clearly horrified by the very idea. “I mean, I would never, Penny’s good, you know, really nice and sweet. I never took her there. She doesn’t belong in a place like Breakers, it’s you know, rough.”

“Did Luka know about Penny?”

“Yeah, everyone kinda did. Most of them thought she was too good for me, couldn’t understand what someone like her would want with me. But I treated her really good. Penny was the best thing that ever happened to me.” David started to tear up again. “She was good, you know?”

“Okay, David, I need you to think carefully about the questions I’m going to ask you, okay. They’re not meant to accuse you of anything, I just need as much information as I can have, okay?”

David nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

“Okay. Now, did Luka ask you any questions about Penny’s job?”

David thought for a moment. “Yeah, kinda. He asked about Mister Styles mostly, but you know, most people do, him being so famous.”

“Can you remember what kind of questions he asked?”

“Just stuff about what it’s like to be so rich. You know, having the big mansion and all the cars.”

“Did he ask about the house.”

“A bit, mostly just about how big it was and how fancy. People like to hear about stuff like the indoor swimming pool.” 

“That makes sense, it is pretty cool.” 

“It is.” David agreed. “And Mister Styles even let us use it, like a lot.”

“Did Luka ask any other questions? Maybe about the security system?”

“Kinda, he asked about cameras, said he’d seen on TV where some rich guy had cameras all over his house. I told him Harry, Mister Styles only had them in the garden.”

“And what else did Luka ask about?”

David stopped to consider the question. “Not a lot, just mostly about how big the house and garden are, they’re pretty big, and kind of amazing, what with all the flowers and stuff.”

Louis smiled, understanding that as a kid from a council estate in Clapton, David would be bound to be dazzled by something as grand as Harry Styles’ home. “What could you tell him about the cameras?”

David shrugged. “Not much, I just know they’re on the garden walls and outside of the house.” He finally seemed to clue in. “You think Luka– but he, why would he– and Penny?”

“It’s just questions right now.”

“But Luka, he’s, well, he’s- he’d only do it there was money, like lots of money. Have they asked Harry for money?”

“I just have a few more que–“

“Oh, god, oh, oh, no,no,, this is my fault. It was me, bragging, talking up my trip, telling him about my girl’s famous boss, about going to his house. Oh God. . .” David got up and began pacing around the room.

“David!” Louis raised his voice slightly. “I need you to concentrate. I need your help. Jamie needs your help.” He softened his tone. “Please, I need you to sit back down and help me figure this out.” He knew the best way to keep a witness’s attention was to make them feel useful.

David sat down. “But I–“ He looked up into Louis stern gaze, he straightened his shoulders and took a deep breath. “Okay. I can, okay.”

“I need to know, exactly what you told Luka, but more importantly, I need to know exactly what he asked you about, the house and the grounds and about Harry and Jamie. Anything you can tell me, okay?”

David nodded. “Okay.”

 

********

The next morning Louis was back in the conference room bright and early. He was going over the statement David Kirkland had given the night before when Liam came in. “Morning.”

“Hey.” Liam began unpacking his satchel. “How’d it go with Kirkland?”

“Okay. It would have been better if I had known I was the one notifying him of Penny Dempsey’s death.”

Liam stopped and turned to stare at his partner. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

Louis shook his head. “Nope, apparently only her mother was told.”

“Why?”

“Don’t fucking ask me. I went in there looking for information and had to tell that kid his girl was dead.” Louis got up and began to pace around the room running his hands repeatedly through his hair. “I’m beginning to reevaluate the level of incompetence to which Rodgers has sunk.”

“Well, Kirkland’s alibi checks out, he was working the graveyard shift, he’d been picking up extra shifts after he took a few weeks off.” Liam flipped through his notes. “He spent a couple of weeks in the US.“

“Yeah, I know. I’m pretty sure that’s what started all this.”

Liam raised an inquiring eyebrow.

“Yeah, Styles treated Kirkland to a few weeks on tour.”

Liam just blinked at him a couple of times. “He took his daughter’s nanny’s boyfriend on tour.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah.”

Liam stood and went to stand in front of the white board he saw Louis had added Luka Danova to the list of suspects. “What’s he have to say about Luka?”

Louis nodded at the rest of the team as they entered. “Danova is aware of Kirkland’s connection to Styles. He was very interested in the big fancy house and its big fancy security.”

“Oh, really?”

Louis handed Liam the drive with the interview on it. “Yeah. Seems our Mister Danova is a real Harry Styles fan, whoda thought?”

“I was gonna head over to NCA to see if Zayn has anything, I’m also going to see what the AKEU has for us.”

Louis smirked at his partner. “Sorry mate, Zayn’s’s going to have to wait, we have an appointment with Mister Styles.” He turned to Stan. “Call Dan at AKEU see if he has anything. Then see if Zayn has anything we can bring Danova in on. I want him in interrogation this afternoon but I don’t want it to even have a whiff of the Styles’ case.”

Stan smirked at him. “I’m sure there’s something he can haul him in for. Guy like Danova is always up to something.”

Louis turned to Glenne . “Calder’s coming in later to help with the social networking stuff.”

“Thanks, boss. I have those notes from Jeff that you wanted.” She handed him a flash drive. “And I have a call in to Mister Styles’ management to see about the fan mail.”

“Andy?”

“Still working through the canvass, there are a few neighbours who weren’t at home yesterday. I’m going to be going through those statements. But first I’m going to go see Will.”

Louis raised an eyebrow.

Andy handed him an autopsy report. “I just have a few questions I want to clear up. There are some bruises I want to ask about.”

Louis appeared not to be listening, he was just staring at the white board seemingly lost in thought. “Call me as soon as you talk to Will. Liam and I are heading over to the Styles place.”

 

********

“Good morning.” Niall Horan opened the door to Louis and Liam. “Harry’s just finishing breakfast in the kitchen, c’mon through.” 

He led them to the back of the house into a kitchen that would have given Louis’ mother heart palpitations. It was spacious, bright and cheery and appeared to have every amenity known to man. The massive commercial quality appliances were balanced by natural stone and warm wood. Brightly coloured accents, including the child’s drawings on the refrigerator, gave the room a comfortable, lived in quality.

Harry was seated at the massive marble island eating an omelette and fresh fruit. He looked up when they entered. “Good morning.” He began to rise but Louis waved him back into his seat. “Would you like some breakfast? I made too much, there’s usually," He hesitated. "Well, more than two of us.”

“No, thank you.” Louis joined him at the counter. The food looked wonderful and Louis was shocked to hear the star had prepared it himself. “But, I wouldn’t say no to a cup of tea.” He once again waved Harry off and set the kettle on for himself. “Did you manage to get some sleep?”

Harry nodded. “I did.” And it was obvious. While the tension was still visible in his face, the dark bruises under his eyes had faded to lilac and he looked rested and his dark hair curled damp and clean to his shoulders. “I took a couple of my allergy pills, they knock me out. So yeah.” He pushed his plate away, the food on it half eaten.

“Good, where would you like to do this?”

“My office, if that’s okay?”

“Wherever is most comfortable for you.”

Once Louis’ tea was ready, Harry stood and began to lead them from the room. “Oh, my God, Detective Sergeant Payne, I’m sorry, can I get you a cup of tea, or coffee, anything?”

Liam had no choice but to smile, he seemed so horrified by his lapse in manners. “It’s fine thank you Mister Styles, I’m good.”

“It’s Harry, please. Just Harry.”

Liam nodded and followed the others into the room they’d seen the night before. Once they were seated he took out his notepad. “I hope you don’t mind if I ask you a few of the same questions as last night, you were a bit uh–“

“Out of it.” Harry finished for him. “I’ve been out of it since I found Jamie’s bed empty.” He ran a still shaky hand through his curls. “God, is it really only three days.” He got up from the sofa and went to stare out the window. “They’re gone?” He turned back to face the two detectives. “The paps and reporters, is that your doing?”

Louis nodded. “The road is narrow here so they were impeding traffic. Most of them have moved around the corner, but at least you can get in and out of your drive without seeing them. Not sure what we can do about the fans though. We move one group along and another just takes its place.”

Harry chuckled ruefully. “Yeah, my fans can be a bit, er, tenacious. It’s great when it comes to ticket and album sales, not so much for privacy.” You could hear the girls across the street start to scream when they spotted Harry at the window. He drew the blinds and returned to his seat. “So, what can I do to get my baby girl home?”

The two detectives took Harry through the day Jamie went missing. There were a few details that were missing from the other interviews including the fact that Harry had been out until close to midnight and had checked on Jamie before going to bed himself and she had been tucked in snug and safe. “I didn’t see Penny.” Harry finished. “I just assumed she was in her room.”

“She’s sleeps in the room next to Jamie’s?” Liam asked checking his notes.

“No, she did when Jamie was smaller, but last year she moved into the suite over the kitchen.”

Louis and Liam exchanged a look. Louis checked his notes again then sat forward in his chair. “Penny was on a different floor?”

“Yeah, I thought it would be nice for her to have her own space. She has a boyfriend and friends so I thought she could use the suite, no one else was.”

“Is there someone who could show DS Payne to Penny’s rooms?” 

“Uh, I could.” Harry began to get to his feet.

Louis held up his hand. “I have a few more questions, if you don’t mind. Maybe Mister Horan?”

Harry mouth actually quirked upward. “Mister Horan. . . Yeah, hang on.” He left the room and returned a few minutes later with the Niall in tow. “Niall can show you whatever you need, Detective Sergeant.”

Liam left the room and Louis turned back to Harry only to find him at Jamie’s desk.

“Is there anyone you can think of who might want to hurt you? Anyone with a grudge? Anyone you know who has been acting outside their norm.”

Harry shook his head. “No, I– um I mean there are lots of people who like to mouth off online and I get some pretty nasty letters, but no one I can think of who would have any reason to do something like this. The online ones are mostly just music snobs who think they can make their cred by attacking me and my fans, and the letters seem mostly to come from, well, I’m pretty sure they’re mostly mentally unwell.”

“We’re going to be taking a look at those, your people are sending them to us and we will follow up.” Louis cleared his throat. “What about people in your life, or close to your life, anyone with a personal grudge, someone who may think you slighted or harmed them in some way, or that you owe them something?”

Harry shrugged helplessly. “I’ve been trying to think of someone, anyone who might hate me that much, but I’ve worked with all the same people since the beginning. I just– I can’t think of anyone who would want to hurt me like this, maybe mouth off to the papers, but not like this.”

“Has there been anyone ‘mouthing off to the papers?”

“Not for a long time. Back at the beginning there were a few people I knew from home who tried to get themselves some press by telling stories about me, but I was a pretty normal kid and never got into much trouble so they never really got anywhere.”

Louis took a few notes. “If you could give me a list of anyone who gave those interviews.”

“From six years ago?” Harry asked incredulously.

“We need to look at everyone, it’s part of the elimination process.”

“I can’t imagine making anyone mad enough that they’d do this. They came into our home. Past a state of the art security system. They took Penny, who had self-defence training–“

Louis stopped writing and looked up. “Wait, she what?”

“Penny, one of the reasons I hired her was she had a black belt.”

“You didn’t mention this before?”

“No one asked.” He shook his head when Louis started to speak. “I mean, no one asked me about Penny. That other cop decided I had something to do with it after he found out I’m gay and that’s all he cared about. He came at me a lot about whether I had ever hurt, Jamie. But he didn’t ask me anything about Penny.” He ran his hand through his hair, something Louis was coming to recognise as a stress tick. “He didn’t care about anything other than making me look as bad as he could to the press.”

“I have called for a complete press blackout.” Louis reassured. “If there is an information leaked to the press you can be certain it won’t be from my people.”

“To be honest, if telling the press anything will help get Jamie back . . .”

“We will be using the press as best we see fit.”

“Okay, that’s– okay.” Harry looked around the office. “This room is one of the reasons I bought this place. I liked all the windows and that there was plenty of room for both of us and our stuff in here. Jamie loves having her own desk.” He moved over to the piano running his hand over the keys. “She’s taking lessons. My music director Jon is teaching her, he says she has a real aptitude for it. She loves music, always running around singing at the top of her lungs.” He smiled sadly. “She inherited her mother’s voice.”

“Your sister could sing too.”

Harry chuckled softly. “Not a single note. But she never let it stop her. She always got so much joy from it. Loud and out of tune, but so much joy. Jamie’s the same way.”

“Tell me about her.”

Harry leaned against the piano. “She’s amazing.” His face softened and relaxed, the pinched look fading as he spoke. “Just– she’s sunshine. She very clever, much too clever for my own good. She’s sweet and funny and the most loving kid in the whole word. She can’t stand to see someone sad. You have a bad day, she’ll just crawl in your lap and tell you some ridiculous story about unicorn-riding super-hero sloths until you have no choice but to feel just a bit happy. She never complains about how weird our life is, doesn’t whine when we don’t get to do some of the things other families can, though I do try to make sure that doesn’t happen very often. But she can be very stubborn and can be very tricky about getting her own way.” He went to the small bookshelf near Jamie’s desk. “ You have kids, Detective Inspector?”

Louis shook his head. “No, but I have five much younger sisters and one little brother, the youngest two are Jamie’s age.”

“It’s so different when they’re yours. When Jamie was born I was so excited. A baby in the family! A baby niece to play with and pamper. Then all of a sudden she was mine. I wasn’t just Uncle Harry who got to spoil her then give her back when she smelled bad or cried. I was a father. I was nineteen, just off the show, everything was happening at once and my whole family was gone except for this beautiful baby girl who needed me to grow up and be her daddy.” He picked up the colouring book from the little desk and held it to his chest. “I’ve always loved and wanted kids. My whole life, other guys would be talking about all the things they wanted to do, all the places and people they wanted to see, I was the only one who always had kids on my list, I mean, I wanted to sing and be a performer and record and tour and all that but I’ve wanted to be a dad for as long as I can remember.” His voice started to break. “I’m a good father. I– I do everything in my power to make sure she’s happy and safe and strong and that she knows no matter what happens I love her more than anything in the world.” Harry cleared his throat. “I wouldn’t hurt her. I would never– I couldn’t she’s my baby.”

“Mister Styles–“

“No!” Harry whirled on him. “That fool Rodgers was convinced I hurt her the second he found out I’m gay. I would never– I couldn’t–“ He finally broke down and collapsed onto the piano bench.

Louis took a deep breath, there was no satisfaction in breaking a parent, it was a necessary evil, but there was no satisfaction to be found there. “I am well aware that some people choose to associate being gay with being a danger to children. I am also aware that one has nothing to do with the other.”

“But you always look at the parent first.” Harry lifted his chin and threw the colouring book onto the piano. “I get that, I do, but that idiot Rodgers had made up his mind and had no interest in anything other than getting his own name in the news as the one who brought me down! I didn’t hurt my daughter, and I would appreciate it if you would try to find out who actually did!”

 

Louis climbed the back stairs in search of his partner, he opened the door off the first landing. “Why didn’t the file mention that she had her own–“ he asked as he joined Liam in Penny Dempsey’s suite. He took in his surroundings, there was a full kitchen, with separate dining area, a comfortable lounge room and a bedroom with en-suite bath. All built into what was once the servants quarters of the grand old home. “It’s not a suite, this is a flat!”

“And it has its own entrance.” Liam waved at a door on the other side of the flat. “That leads to stairs that go down to the garage..”

Louis’ eyebrows shot up. “There is nothing about that in the file.”

“I know.”

“Any sign of forced entry on the door?”

“None that I could see, but I have a call into Caroline. I’m not even sure her people were up here. If you weren’t told, you would never know this was here.”

Louis took a slow careful breath in through his nose and blew it out through his teeth. “I’m going to go back down to talk to Horan. Let me know if you find anything.”

 

Louis met the guitarist in the kitchen where he was preparing a sandwich. “You have a few minutes, Mister Horan?”

“I do, but only if you call me NIall.” He sat at the counter. “You want one?”

“No, thank you.”

Niall took a bite of the sandwich and watched Louis carefully while he chewed. “You wanna ask me about Harry?”

“Actually, I want to ask you about who might hate Harry enough to do something like this.”

Niall’s eyebrows shot up. “Seriously?”

Louis nodded.

“Okay, wow, cool, it’s just the other cops never, you know. . .”

“Yes, well, they’re gone and I’m here. So, first of all, how long have you known Mister Styles.”

“Almost seven years. We met on the X-Factor.”

“You were a contestant?” Louis didn’t remember the young Irishman, but then he had mostly watched the show to keep up with his sisters.

Niall shook his head. “No, well, yeah, but I never made it past boot-camp, I was cut on the last day. But Harry and I roomed together and really hit it off, you know how you just kinda connect with some people?”

“I do.”

“That was me and Harry. I mean, everybody likes him, he’s just got that thing you know, and he’s just a really nice guy, treats people really well, gets people, knows how to talk to them, makes them feel important and just– I don’t know, like he’s really interested in what you have to say. People react to that. I guess not many people do that. Plus he’s got that–“ he waved his hands around. “That whole, I don’t know, thing, he just has something that’s different, you can see it when he walks into a room, he just, shines.’ He stopped to take a bite of his sandwich. “But we just got on, right from the start. Don’t know why really, I reckon you don’t always know why you love the people you love.”

Louis hesitated, a bit taken aback at the flow of information. “Have you two ever been involved?”

Niall snorted. “He’s not my type.”

Louis raised an eyebrow.

“I’m straight.”

Louis nodded and moved on. “When did you start working together?”

“That took a bit longer. He had all the stuff for the X-Factor, the tour and shit. Since he finished third no one really knew what to expect but the fans just kept at it. So then they started talking about a whole album and a tour and shit and Harry told them about me and that I play and there we go.”

“There must have been a few people who resented his success, people who think they might be owed something?”

Horan stopped to consider Louis’s question. “Not really. I mean, sure, there are the jerks who think because they buy an album they should be allowed to peek in the windows. But Harry is careful with people.”

“Careful?”

“Yeah. He makes a point of not being the diva douche. Most of us have been with him from the start. All of us in the band have.” Horan crossed over to the pantry and rummaged around, he resurface hold a bag of crisps. “He doesn’t treat any of us like employees, we all hang out together on tour, there’s no separation between the star and the rest of us.” He held out the bag of crisps.

Louis shook his head at the preferred snack and tapped his pen against his teeth a couple of times. “What about the fans? Has there ever been anything that struck you as being just a little too much? More interest that the norm?”

“That would pretty much be all of them.” Niall chuckled. “Harry doesn’t have a lot of casual fans. They’re pretty full on. Though things are probably going to change now?”

“How so?”

“Lotta teenage girls aren’t going to be as interested and invested in a gay guy.”

Louis just blinked at him. “I’m sorry?”

Niall shrugged one shoulder. “It’s a big part of the reason the label and his managers wouldn’t let him some out. They think girls like their fantasy. Meeting and marrying Harry blah blah.” He munched on a couple of crisps before finishing. “Think it’s bullshit, m’self, girls aren’t that simple.”

Louis wasn’t quite sure what to say to that, he had enough experience with the teen girls in his family to understand the business reasoning behind it, but still couldn’t wrap his head around the emotional cost being worth it. “Yes, well. You can’t think of anyone who might have this kind of axe to grind?”

“Hate Harry enough to steal his little girl and kill someone? Absolutely not.”

“I can’t imagine hating anyone that much.”

Louis and Niall turned to see Harry standing in the door. Louis was struck by how young he looked. Though only two years Louis’ junior the exhaustion and fear lent an air of vulnerability to the singer’s appearance that made him seem younger. Louis had always been able to see the attraction Harry held for millions world wide, but here, ungroomed with his public armour stripped away, barefoot, dressed simply in a t-shirt and tracksuit bottoms, it was even more apparent just how physically beautiful Harry Styles was. “It doesn’t have to be hate–”

“I’m sorry?” Harry interrupted incredulously. “If someone wanted to destroy me, this is how to do it, this is about the only way to do it. I could live without pretty much everything else, but they took my baby, and they killed a lovely young woman. If that isn’t hate. . . “

“The one thing I have learned in this job is that hate is the motivation for hateful actions a lot less that one might think. That’s why we want you to think about anyone who may have paid even a bit too much attention to either you or Jamie.” Louis held up his hand to forestall protest. “I know, but anything outside _your_ normal might give us a place to start. I–“ he was interrupted by his mobile, it was Stan Lucas. “Tomlinson.”

“Hey, boss. Malik’s got Danova’s boys.” 

“His boys?”

“He pulled a bunch of them in, made a sweep.”

“What about Danova?”

“Didn’t find him. We’re hoping a few of these guys might know something. He pulled in a few of Teddy Jacob’s guys too.”

Louis nodded, this was a very good thing. “Smart. Jacobs would like nothing better than to see Danova go down. Plus the little rat knows every move everybody makes.”

“Yeah, that was our thinking. A move as big as a high profile kidnapping and a murder isn’t going to fly under Jacob’s radar.”

“You gonna talk to them?”

“Malik’s got his guy in there. We thought putting me in might give it away that we’re looking at Danova.”

Louis let out a frustrated breath and ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, okay, good. Make sure they shake his guys good. Danova wouldn’t have been in the house himself, but he would have been the one to make the call on Penny.”

“Yeah, we know.” Stan spoke to someone for a second. “Gotta go boss, Malik’s calling me.”

“Okay, keep me updated.” Louis disconnected and returned his attention to the two men at the island. Harry and Niall were clearly having a disagreement about something. “Gentlemen?”

Niall nudged Harry. “Tell him!”

Louis crossed back to where they were standing. “If there’s something you’ve thought of I need to know, don’t keep anything from us.”

Harry took a deep slow breath. “I know you looked into my relationships.”

Louis nodded.

“I’m pretty sure you only found two.”

Louis nodded again. “I take there have been others?”

“Yeah, just the one.” He glanced at Niall who nodded encouragingly. “But I know he has nothing to do with this.”

“Okay. How are you so certain?”

“He–“ Harry swallowed. “He’s a friend. We just– sometimes we get together. When we’re both single. It’s tough for both of us so we just–, get together.”

Louis nodded, understanding. “I take it he’s in the closet too?”

Harry nodded, his eyes never leaving Louis’ face.

“Okay. I can understand that, you can’t exactly go out and meet people the same way everyone else can. But–“

“He has nothing to do with this.” Harry insisted. “He has even more reason to stay in the closet than I do. He doesn’t need the money and he would never hurt Jamie!”

“So he knows Jamie?”

“Like I said, he’s a good friend, has been for a long time.”

“Okay. But even if he had nothing to do with it, he may know something or–

“I can’t–“

Niall placed a gentle hand on Harry’s shoulder. “Haz, he’ll understand.” He turned back to Louis. “I’m sure DI Tomlinson will be very discreet.”

Louis picked up the warning in Niall’s words. “I can promise you, if he’s not involved, I will make sure no one knows I even spoke to him.”

“He’s been– , he knows what I’m going through better than anyone else, sorry Ni, but he does. His career–“

“Harry, tell him.”

Harry chewed on his bottom lip. “I– dammit! It’s Lyle Clarke.”

It took everything Louis had not to let his surprise show. “Lyle Clarke, as in the striker for Chelsea?”

“Yes.” Harry swallowed hard. “Please, Louis–“

“I know.” Clarke was one of the premiere players in the Premiere League, and one of the highest paid athletes in the world. Young, handsome and brilliantly gifted, he was the poster boy for English football, coming out would be very difficult for him. “I will be as discreet as I can be, I promise, I have no interest in outing anyone.”

Harry almost appeared to collapse with relief. “Thank you.”

“Now, is there anything else you haven’t told us.”

“Nothing I can think of.” Harry looked at Niall who shrugged.

“No one’s sent anything strange lately, no fans spending a little too much time around the house?”

“Well, there is a group of fans who seem to show up everywhere H is. We think they may have a mole inside, but we can’t prove who.” Niall refused to be intimidated by Harry’s glare. “What? They are. How the hell do they manage to know where you are even when its not something on the schedule, hmm? Jesus, they show up at the airport no matter what ungodly fu– fudging hour we get in.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “They’re creepy and annoying, Niall, that doesn’t make them criminals.”

“I’m going to need names.” Louis put a stop to the argument.

“I only know one or two of their first names. But Dale should know them, I think.” Harry provided reluctantly.

“Try Twitter. They never shut up about meeting Harry.” Niall offered, with air quotes around meeting, once again ignoring Harry’s dirty look.

“Anything else?”

“There’s the Quickies” 

“Niall.” Harry sighed.

“What? They’re batsh– bat guano crazy, Harry!” He turned to Louis. “You should see some of the things they’ve said and done.”

“Really?” Louis addressed Harry.

Harry looked from Louis to Niall and back again and sighed. “Fine. Two years ago I was set up with Devon Quick, we made a few appearances together, made sure I got papped at her hotel, I took her on a tour of Cheshire, that kind of thing. It only lasted a little over a month but the press made a massive deal out of it.”

“Like they were meant to.” Niall interjected.

“Like they were meant to.” Harry conceded. “But the thing is, she made a few remarks on a couple of awards shows and on her new album there are a few songs alluding to me and her fans seem to think I may have broken her heart.”

Louis was a bit confused. “Even though it was set up? Did she know you were gay?”

“Yeah, of course. It’s kind of her thing, she writes about her _relationships_ ” Now Harry used air quotes around relationships.

“And you’re okay with that? With her saying you’re the bad guy?” 

Harry shrugged. “No, not really, but at the time she was the bigger star, it helped raise my profile in the US.”

“Okay, so what does this have to do with Jamie?”

Niall and Harry exchanged another look.

“Listen. There is nothing too small or out there. Anything and anyone can be a lead.” Louis encouraged.

Harry ruffled his hair and pushed it back from his face. “With the release of her album a few of her more, er, well, enthusiastic fans have been– erm–“

“He’s been getting stuff here at the house.” Niall stepped in.

Louis head shot up. “What kinds of things? And did you keep them?”

“Letters, mostly. One was a box of moldy muffins.” Harry grimaced. “And a dismembered stuffed cat.”

“Muffins and a cat?” It wasn’t the strangest thing Louis had ever heard, but it was still a long way from normal. “Do they have some sort of significance?”

Harry nodded. “Yeah, when we were together there was a big deal made out of the fact that I got her twenty-two muffins for her twenty-second birthday.”

Louis just stared at him for a moment. “You buying her muffins, was news.”

“Yeah, I know, but her fans were thrilled.”

“And she likes cats?”

“Yep, she has a blog dedicated to hers.”

Louis tried for a moment to wrap his head around one of the most successful singers on the planet having the time or inclination to have a cat blog, but gave it up as futile. “Okay. So, when you received the muffins and cat, did you call the police?”

Niall raised his hand. “See! I told you–“

“No, we didn’t. I get all kinds of strange stuff from people. Some of it a lot more disturbing than a few moldy muffins.”

“Like?”

“Most of it is rather, uh, graphic.”

“You mean sexual? Is any of it threatening?”

Harry chewed on his lip and nodded his head back and forth. “No, I guess not, just really disturbing when you consider how young some of these girls are.”

Louis thought to his own sisters and made a note to call his mum. “Okay. Did anyone take note of who sent the muffins and cat?”

“I’m pretty sure Carla has that stuff. My assistant? She keeps track of all the creepy things I get sent.”

“One of my team has an appointment to speak to her later this afternoon.” Louis leaned against the island. “We’re going to have the crime scene team back in here. There’s nothing to indicate they’ve been up in Miss Dempsey’s room. Were they told that her rooms were separate?”

“To be honest, detective, I don’t really remember much of what happened that first day.” Harry looked to Niall. “I don’t know where they looked or what they were told.”

Niall nodded. “Yeah, that idio– other detective had him locked in the music room all day, grilling him.”

“Yes, well. . .” Louis cleared his throat, not willing to speak to the other team’s faults. “Do you know if they were ever in Penny’s rooms?”

“I don’t know. They were all over the ground and first floors, and I know they were in the basement. But I couldn’t tell you for sure, I know no one ever asked me about it.”

“Okay, thank you. Is there anyone else they may have asked?”

“No one who wouldn’t have had to ask me, Harry or Carla for the keys.” 

“Keys? You need keys to get into the garage from the house?”

Niall rolled his eyes. “Yeah, they put the wrong kind of lock on that door. It’s keyed both ways.”

“But just that door, not the one from Penny’s rooms?”

“Only Penny and I have that key. That was her private entrance.” Harry offered.

“May I see your keys?” 

Harry nodded and left the room.

“Thank you.”

Louis turned back to Niall. “For what?”

Niall lifted his chin toward the door Harry had just exited. “For not treating him like a criminal, for making him feel like he’s doing something to help get Jamie back. I was–“ He hesitated.

“You were what?” Louis prompted.

“I was really afraid for him. Losing Jamie, then that other cop deciding he had to have hurt her because he thinks Harry being gay means he’s some sort of pervert. He loves his daughter, detective, he adores her and they told everyone he was responsible for her being gone. I was scared they were going to break him.”

“Mister–“ Louis stopped when Harry came back in the room.

“Here, that’s all of them, the one with the blue tag is Penny’s.” Harry handed Louis a key chain.

Louis flipped through the tagged keys. “Do you know where Penny’s keys are?”

Niall shook his head but Harry answered. “She usually hooks them by the back door or throws them in a bowl beside her outside entrance.” He waved toward the backdoor. “They aren’t there so they should be upstairs.”

“Okay, good, thank you.” Louis made a note to check the bowl. “Now–“ He was interrupted by the ringing doorbell.

Niall left to answer and when he returned he was accompanied by Caroline Watson and two of her techs. 

“Ah, perfect.” Louis shook Caroline’s hand. “I assume you’ve met Caroline Watson from our crime lab, I’ve asked them back here to go over Penny’s room and the garden, see if we can get a better picture.” He nodded to Harry and Niall. “Caz, we’re up here.”

Once Louis had passed Caroline and her team off to Liam upstairs, he once again went in search of Harry. He found him in his daughter’s bedroom. “She designed this place herself.” Harry ran his hand over the bed. “When we were redoing this room, the designer had this really elaborate Victorian confection in mind but Jamie put her foot down and said she wanted a jungle tree-house.” He chuckled sadly. “She drew this bed handed it to him and informed him that this was what she wanted.” 

The bed took up almost half the room. Housed in a fantastical tree-house elevated off the ground and reached by ladder, there was a desk and bookshelves built into the trunk and roots. The leafy canopy reached the ceiling and was home to stuffed monkeys, butterflies and parrots. “Did she design the murals too?” Two of the walls were covered in lifelike tropical scenes. 

“Yeah. She had her crayons out for days working on her designs, she followed the artist around supervising his work. He was so good with her, letting her be his assistant, making all the changes she wanted, she was so happy with the results. For weeks after it was done, every single person who came to the house got dragged up here for the tour.” He moved to look out the window. “She chose this room because of that tree. When we were looking for houses last year it was in full bloom, covered in pink flowers, and she fell in love.”

“You bought a house because she liked a tree?”

The corner of Harry’s mouth turned up showing just the faintest hint of a dimple. “It was what set this one apart from all the others. We didn’t really want to move, the other house was our home, the only home Jamie really remembered, but it was too public, too easily accessed by my fans and the paparazzi. This place felt right, felt like it was ours, the tree was just the topper.” He picked up a stuffed monkey and cuddled it to his chest. “How long have you been with the police?”

It took Louis a second to catch up to the change of subject. “I was recruited from University. I was studying criminology and psychology.” 

“Did you plan to become a police officer?”

“Yeah, it’s what I wanted to be all my life.”

“Why not join when you were eighteen then? Why uni?”

Louis understood very well what Harry was doing the need to know who was searching for his child was a reasonable one. “I wanted this, major crimes, here in London. I knew having a university education would help get me here faster.”

“So things like this, Jamie, this is what you do?”

“Mister Styles–“

“Please, just Harry.”

“Of course, I’m sorry. Harry, my team, the people working with me on the case, are as good or better than any investigators in this city, hell in the country. We will do everything in our power to find out what happened to Jamie.” Louis tried to keep his tone as reassuring as he could.

“You’ve never said you could get her back.” Harry held up his hand before Louis could answer. “I get that you don’t want to make any promises that you can’t keep, but do you think there is any chance my baby is still alive?”

Louis took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, this was the question he always dreaded. “I don’t know. That is the most honest answer I can give you right now.”

Harry’s face fell. “Okay, that’s– I understand, I–“ he seemed to fold in on himself and Louis was moving toward him as his knees gave way and he fell to the floor. “Oh, God.” Harry started to shake as he buried his face in the toy he still held.

Louis dropped to his knees beside him. He knew there was nothing he could say in this moment that would help. He also knew that sometimes just being there was enough. 

Louis wasn’t sure how long they sat there on the floor of the cheerful jungle room, but slowly Harry came back to himself, the trembling eased and his breathing evened, finally he lifted his head to turn tear filled eyes on Louis. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to lose it on you like that.”

Louis patted his shoulder. “If anyone is entitled to have a breakdown it’s you. There is no need to apologise.”

Harry unfolded his legs and leaned against the tree-house. “That was the first time I’ve felt it was okay to cry.”

Louis rearranged himself so he too was propped against the bed. “May I ask why?” He asked, already pretty sure of the answer.

Harry plucked at the toy and stared at a spot across the room. “I’m not sure. Maybe because I felt like if I cried it was like giving up, like she couldn’t come home if I fell apart.” His mouth twisted up in an ugly parody of his famous smile. “That other cop, Rodgers? He kept asking me why I hadn’t cried. I didn’t know, I still don’t know, all I felt was numb, and then when I realised people thought I’d done something to her, it was like it was all happening to someone else.” 

Louis knew in his gut that there was no way this man had anything to do with his child going missing. His years of training and experience told him this man was a victim. “That reaction, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, is perfectly normal.”

Harry’s gaze came back to Louis. “I’m sorry?”

“It’s self-preservation, the detachment, it’s your mind’s way of protecting itself from what’s happening. You couldn’t fully manage what had happened so you detached from it somewhat in order to cope.” He reached out and grasped Harry’s wrist. “I see it in victims all the time, you do what you have to, to survive.”

Harry’s eyes once again filled. “Thank you. Oh god, thank you.” He clutched Louis hand where is still lay on his wrist. “I–“ he was interrupted by the appearance of Liam in the doorway. 

“Lou–“ Liam stopped when he saw them sitting so close together on the floor. “Uh, Detective Inspector Tomlinson, may I speak to you a moment.”

Louis patted Harry’s hand and got up to join Liam in the hall. “What’s up?”

Liam pulled him further from the door. “Jamie’s alive.”


	3. Rescue Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The people who have Jamie make contact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive thank you to my beta/Britpickers the wonderful
> 
> [Lou](http://wariormum.tumblr.com), [Sheena](http://conscious--ramblings.tumblr.com) and Sam

Chapter 3

Rescue Me

Louis, Harry and Liam rushed into the small main floor room the audio surveillance team had been using. “What do you have?” Louis asked as soon as they arrived.

“We got a call.” Jonny answered. “They put Jamie on for a moment and said they will call back and want to talk to Mister Styles.” He signalled the technician to play the recording. There were three voices, the detective, the caller and another that gave everyone in the room hope.

_**”Let me talk to Styles.”**_  
_“May I ask who’s calling?”_  
**_“I have his brat.”_**  
_“You have Jamie?”_  
**_“That’s what I said isn’t it.”_**  
_“May we speak to her?”_  
**_“I wanna talk to the big shot.”_**  
_“Only if we can speak to Jamie.”_  
**“Daddy?”**  
_“What is your name sweetheart?”_  
**“Jamie Grace Styles, can I talk to–“  
** _**“You got the kid. Tell Styles we’ll be calling back in five minutes.”**_  


“That’s what we have. We–“

“Why didn’t you come get me?” Harry burst out.

“Harry-“

He shrugged Louis off. “No!” Harry waved frantically at the recording equipment. “He wanted to talk to me, he has her, he wanted to talk–“

Louis grabbed Harry by the shoulders and turned him so they were face to face. “He’s calling back. You heard him, he was probably going to keep it short, thinking he could beat a trace. He’ll call back.”

Harry was trembling from head to toe, his eyes wild and frantic. “How can you know for sure?”

“Because he called in the first place. He let us hear her. He wants something, he’ll call back.”

Harry’s anger visibly drained from him. “She sounds so scared.” He whispered brokenly.

Louis led him over to the sofa and helped him sit. “I know this is hard, and yes she did sound scared, but you need to listen to me.” 

Harry looked up at him. “What do you need me to do?”

Louis knelt in front of him and place his hands on Harry’s knees. “He’s going to call back and he’s going to want to talk to you. We’re going to take you through what you need to say and do to help us get Jamie home as soon as possible, okay? We need you to do this, Jamie needs us to get this right.”

Harry nodded firmly. “Whatever it takes.”

Louis could feel him shaking, but patted his knee and handed him off to Jonny to go over what he would say and do when the call came. Louis pulled Liam aside. “Anything from upstairs?”

“Not much yet.” Liam said lowering his voice. “He give you anything?”

“No. I don’t think he has anything to give.” He looked over to where Harry was speaking to Jonny and the techs. “I got more of a picture of what kind of father he is, but that’s about it.”

“You like him.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Styles, you like him.”

Louis rolled his eyes. “He’s a victim, Li, the fact that he’s likeable has no bearing on anything.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I like him too. I wasn’t expecting to, but I do.” 

“So. . .”

“I’ve just never seen you like that. Don’t get me wrong, you’re always great with victims, but there’s something different here.”

“Liam–“

“Look, just– be careful–“ He was cut off by the ringing phone.

Everyone fell silent as Alice gave Harry the signal to answer.

Harry cleared his throat nervously, took a deep breath and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“I want two million pounds deposited into my online account before midnight tonight.”

“I– can I speak to Jamie please.” Harry’s voice trembled but he followed the script laid out for him. “I– I just– I need to know she’s okay.”

“Daddy?”

“Hi, baby girl, we’re going to get you home, okay?”

“Daddy, I’m cold and my feet are wet.”

“Shhh, baby, we–“

“That’s enough, you heard her, now, about my money.”

Harry glanced at Louis who nodded his encouragement. “It might take me a bit more time, I don’t have that kind of cash on hand.”

“Fuck you, get me–“

“I can get it!” Harry continued hastily. “It might just take me a bit longer than that.” 

“Midnight. The information you need will be emailed to you.” He gave them the details for a web based email address. “You have until midnight, you won’t like what happens if you’re one minute late.” With that he hung up. 

Louis looked at Jonny who shook his head. “It’s a mobile.”

Louis knew the phone was likely a pay-as-you-go and dumped as soon as the call was disconnected.

Harry turned frantically looking for Louis. “I don’t have two million pounds! Not that I can get at in less than ten hours.”

Louis moved quickly to Harry’s side but was interrupted before he could say anything. “That’s something I can help you with.” 

They all turned to look at the man in the doorway. “Simon–“

“No, Harry, I have every faith that these good people will get my money back, but right now we need to focus on bringing Jamie home.” 

Louis signalled Jonny to his side. “You coordinate with Mister Cowell about the money. Stan, get Dan at the AKEU, tell him we have contact and a ransom demand.”

“Wait, who’s that?” Harry grabbed Louis’ arm. “I–“

Louis nodded to his team before he turned his full attention on Harry. “Dan is Dan Richards. He works at the National Crime Agency in their Anti Kidnap and Extortion Unit, this is what they do.”

“But–“

“They won’t be coming in and taking over. They work in an advisory capacity. We’ve been working with Dan since we got the case. That’s what they do.” He reiterated with a pat on Harry’s arm. “He’ll be coming in to help, okay?”

Harry visibly pulled himself together before nodding and stepping back from Louis. “He’ll help?”

“He’ll help.”

“Okay.” 

An hour later the AKEU officer had arrived and they were going over the details of the demand when Simon got the call saying the money was ready and available. Louis only wasted a few seconds marvelling at the idea that someone could get their hands on two million pounds with an hours notice before he turned his attention back to his team. “What do we–?” He was interrupted by the ringing of his own mobile. “Tomlinson.”

“Detective?” The voice was barely a whisper.

“Who is this? Speak up.”

“It’s David, sir, David Kirkland.”

Louis could barely hear him. “David? Why can’t I hear you? What’s going on?”

“I’m at Breakers. I heard something.”

Louis closed his eyes as he felt fear for the young man wash over him. “Okay, David, can you get somewhere safe before you tell me?”

“No, sir, I can’t, but you need to know. Luka has Jamie. I overheard one of his boys saying where they have her. It’s his aunt’s place. I know the house.”

“Okay, David that’s good.” Louis signalled for a pen and paper. “Give me the address.” He wrote down the address David gave him. “Do you know how many?”

“No, sir.” David raised his voice. “Yeah, mum, I’ll remember, I’m not an idiot you know.”

“You’re a good man, David, Penny would be so proud. You get out of there as soon as you can and get to the station, you hear me.”

“Okay, c’mon, mum, I got it, I said I’d do it and I will.” With that David hung up.

“We may have a location.” Louis said incredulously.

Jonny’s eyes widened. “What? How?”

“David Kirkland. The stupid kid went to Breakers to snoop around.”

“Jesus, is he okay?”

“I have no idea.” Louis scrubbed his hand over his face. “Okay, we have an address, give me a map.”

Jonny pulled up the map on his tablet and handed it to Louis. 

Louis glanced over to where Harry was sat with Liam, and Cowell, at some point Horan had also joined the group. “Put the call in.” He studied the map. “We’ll meet here, in this car park.” He pointed to an office building several blocks from where David believed Jamie was being held. 

Jonny began making calls and Louis headed over to the other group. “Harry, I need you to listen to me.” He said firmly.

“Okay.” Harry agreed, clearly confused.

“Good, we have a possible location on Jamie.” When Harry began to speak he held up his hand. “I’m getting a team together to gather information. We need to know if it’s safe to go in and get her.”

“But you have to, she–“

“Harry.” Simon laid a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “Let DI Tomlinson finish.”

“Thank you, sir. Harry, we have to make sure we can get in and out safely. We don’t want anything we do to jeopardise Jamie.” When he saw Harry begin to shake he took his hands and continued. “We will do whatever it takes to get her back here, okay.”

Harry nodded and collapsed into Horan’s arms. Louis nodded at Cowell and drew Liam away. “I’ll meet you at the car in five.” 

 

Just over an hour later Louis was addressing his team. “We have eyes on the house.” He pulled the video up on the tablet. As far as we can tell there are two of them. We won’t know where they’re holding Jamie until we get someone in close.” He nodded to Glenne. “That’s you. I need to know where everyone is, so do what you can to get in.”

The attractive brunette adjusted the short, tight, skirt she had donned for the occasion. “You got it boss.”

Five minutes later Glenne’s voice came over the wire. “Oh, thank god, can you help me, I think someone is following me!” She sounded breathy and panicked.

“What? You don’t have a phone.” The voice was the one they had heard earlier.

“I do but it’s dead. Please. I just need to call my friend, he’ll come get me.”

“You don’t want to call the cops?”

“NO!” Glenne shifted from afraid to edgy and nervous. “I mean, there’s no reason they need get involved.” 

“Oh?” 

“Well, yeah, I mean, you know it uh. . .” She moved on to cajoling. “You’re not going to call them are you?”

“I got no use for cops, myself.”

“Oh thank– er, well no need. I can just call my friend.”

He looked her up and down, taking in the short skirt and tight low cut jumper. “Fine. Phone’s there, make it quick.”

“Oh, thank you so much.” They could hear Glenne dialling the phone. “Hi, Jonny, I need a ride, it happened again. Yeah, no there were only the two of them this time. Yeah, I could see them both. No just them. Mhmm, no, I didn’t see it but it may have been underneath. No, the windows were all open so I could see them. I don’t know, I didn’t see her but I think she was in the backseat, it was the only place she could have been. Um, hang on.” She turned her attention back to the man watching her. “What’s the address here?” She repeated it into the phone. “Okay, thanks, love.” Glenne hung up. “Thank you so much. He’s on his way.”

“Do you uh, do really you think you should go outside?” This was a new voice.

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. Maybe not, huh?”

“Can I get you something, help settle your nerves.”

“No, thank you though. I really appreciate this.”

“Has this happened to you before?” New guy’s voice was soft and concerned.

“Um, yeah, it’s my ex-boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend and a couple of her friends, they blame me for him dumping her.” Glenne explained, sticking to the script.

Meanwhile Louis and Liam were in the back garden of the small, run-down, terrace house. Louis leaned carefully around the edge of the window and could see through the kitchen to where Glenne had both men entranced. He signalled to Liam to check the window to the left of the door, while he went right. There curled up on a recliner, still in the pajamas she’d been taken in, her dark curls a tangled mess, was Jamie Styles. Louis waved Liam over and spoke into his mic. “I’ve got her, she’s in the back. I can get in through the window but I need a distraction. Jonny I need you to go in to pick up Glenne, cause a little fuss, not much, just enough to make sure they can’t hear me.” He whispered, then signalled to Liam where he wanted him..

Liam nodded and moved to the side of the window. A few minutes later Louis heard the doorbell ring and when Glenne pretended to burst into tears and make a scene over her rescuers, he slid the window quietly open. He slipped inside and moved slowly and silently to Jamie’s side. He covered her mouth to prevent a scream when she woke. Jamie’s wide hazel eyes were frantic until Louis held up his badge and put a finger to his lips. He could still hear Glenne and Jonny making a fuss about getting together for a drink to thank the two men who had come to her aid so heroically. Louis handed Jamie out the window to Liam then climbed out after her. 

As soon as they were out of the neighbours garden he called his team. “We have her. The second Jonny and Glenne are clear, move in.” He ordered. 

Minutes later it was all over. Andy and Stan led the two handcuffed suspects out of the house as Louis carried Jamie to his car. Settling her into the backseat he grabbed a bag off the floor. “My name is Louis, I’m a policeman.”

Jamie seemed to relax a bit at that news so Louis continued. “Now, someone told me you have cold feet.”

She nodded and bit her lip. “Uh huh, they’re wet.”

“Would these help?” He held up the pair of monkey slippers he had collected from her bedroom before he left.

Jamie’s face brightened. “Those are my slippers!”

“They certainly are.” He helped her out of her wet socks and into the warm dry slippers. He also provided a soft sweater to supplement the light summer pajamas she had been wearing since she was taken. “How about we get you home?”

Jamie flung her arms around his neck. “I want my daddy!” She sobbed, now that she was warm, dry, and safe her emotions got the better of her.

Louis stood with Jamie in his arms. He waved Liam over. “I need you to drive.”

Liam took in the sobbing child clinging to his partner and climbed behind the wheel while Louis got in the back seat still holding Jamie.

Jamie clung tightly to Louis still crying softly. “Shhh, it’s okay now.” He cooed. “We’re going to take you to your daddy okay?” He rubbed her back soothingly until she calmed slightly and some of the tension left her little body. 

Jamie turned in his lap so she was leaning against his chest. “Is my daddy mad?” She asked with a hiccough, her voice tiny and scared.

“Oh, no, precious, why would he be mad?”

“Cuz, I got out of my bed and I’m not upposed to.”

Louis brushed the matted curls back from her face. “You did? Why did you get out of your bed?”

“Bonkers didn’t come to bed with me and I hadta find him.”

“Bonkers?” 

“My kitty. He sleeps with me, and he forgotted.”

“Okay.”

“But there was a man and he was mean and he hurt me.” She pushed up the sleeve of the sweater and held out her arm and Louis could clearly see the hand shaped bruises from where she had been roughly grabbed.

“Did he hurt you anywhere else?” He asked carefully sending a prayer up to whoever might be listening that he got the answer he wanted.

She shook her head. “The other man made him stop hurting my arm. He said I was just a kid and he made him not be mean to me.” Her eyes filled once again. “But they were mean to Miss Penny, the big man really hurted her.” Big tears spilled over and dripped down her cheeks. “They tried to make her go away from me but she got real mad and hit the big man, and then I didn’t see her anymore.” She laid her head against Louis’ chest and started to weep.

Louis held her close and let her cry. He didn’t envy whoever was going to have to explain Penny to her.

When they pulled through the gate and into the drive Harry came running out of the house. When he saw Louis get out of the car with Jamie in his arms he almost fell over himself getting to them. 

Jamie flung herself at her father and Harry dropped to his knees cuddling her as close to his chest as he could. They were both sobbing and Louis and Liam moved to shield them from the eyes of the press as best they could. 

Louis leaned into his partner. “We need to get them away from the vultures.” He saw Horan running toward them and moved to intercept. “Help me get them inside.”

Niall moved to Harry’s side. “Haz, mate, we need to get Jamie inside, yeah.” He tried to help Harry to his feet but he was paying him no mind.

Louis knelt beside them. “Harry?” He shook his shoulder. “Jamie’s cold and wet, we need to get her warm.” 

Concern for his daughter brought Harry back to them. He stood on shaky knees still clutching Jamie to his chest, he allowed Louis and Niall to lead him back to the house. They made their way up to Jamie’s bedroom and Louis had to stop Harry from taking Jamie straight into the bath.

“She’s cold, she needs a warm bath.” Harry protested.

“I know she does.” Louis reassured. “But her clothes are evidence and we need pictures before you wash anything away.” Harry made to argue but Louis stood firm. “I can get CSE Watson to collect the evidence, she’s already here. But we have to make sure we have everything, Harry, every bit of evidence is important.”

Harry looked down at his daughter who appeared to be dozing off in the safety of her daddy’s arms. “Okay, but make it quick.” 

Louis called Caroline who was there within a minute with her kit and camera. She carefully helped Jamie out of her dirty pajamas and was gentle and cheerful about the pictures and samples she needed. She turned to Louis with a raised eyebrow once Jamie was in her robe.

Louis knelt in front of the tired six-year old. “I need to ask you something very important, okay, Jamie?” 

She nodded.

“Okay, I know the big man hurt your arm, when he grabbed you.”

Another nod.

“Did he ever touch you anywhere else?” He heard Harry’s pained gasp but ignored him.

Jamie shook her head. “Nuh uh. The other man said he was too mean so he wasn’t allowed to talk to me anymore.”

“Okay, that’s good, you’re doing perfect. Did the other man ever touch you.”

“Uh huh. He picked me up when he made the other made put me down. He was sad that my feet got wet and said he was sorry.”

“He didn’t touch you other than that?”

She shook her head again. “He just gived me to Miss Penny.” She looked around the room. “Where’s Miss Penny? The big man got really mad at her.”

“Okay, sweetie, I think your daddy can give you a bath now.”

Harry gathered her up and took her into the bathroom. Louis turned to Caroline. “There’s that at least.”

Caroline swallowed hard. “Yeah, I was terrified what I would find, but the only mark on her is the one on her arm and it’s a few days old.”

“Yeah, she said she got it the night she was taken.”

“Any idea yet what happened?”

Louis shook his head. “No, they’ve got the two from the house, they should have processed them by now. Are you guys done upstairs?”

“Yeah, they definitely went out through the apartment.”

“I don’t get it. Something about this just isn’t making sense.” Louis couldn’t wrap his head around the current evidence.

“I’ll leave the logic to you guys.” Caroline patted his shoulder. “You’ll have my report tomorrow morning.”

“Thanks Cazza, good work.” 

“Don’t look so down, Louis. A six-year-old little girl is home.” She smiled and left. 

Louis went back downstairs and took out his phone. He knew he was going to have to do a more in-depth interview with Jamie, but right now he wanted to know what was happening back at the station. 

“Hey, boss.” Jonny answered on the first ring.

“What’ve you got for me, Jon?”

“Andy’s in with the big one and Stan is with the little one. Glenne has David Kirkland and everybody is really chatty.” 

“Oh really? I’m surprised, Luka’s boys are usually pretty tight lipped.”

“Yeah, well, these two aren’t muscle, they’re thieves.”

Louis opened and closed his mouth a few times before he could get anything out. “They weren’t after Jamie?”

“Nope, they were after the watch collection.”

“I’m sorry, what?’

“Yeah.” Jonny snorted. “They were after Styles’ watch-collection. Apparently it’s worth thousands and easily moved.”

Louis sat down hard on the stairs. “They were willing to hit an occupied house? That doesn’t make sense.”

“They were under the impression that Styles would be out much until later and it was just Jamie and Penny in the house.”

“Where the fuck did they get their information?” 

“That, they haven’t shared, yet.” Jonny didn’t sound any happier with that answer than Louis felt.

“Kay, so they were going to hit the house for the watches and likely whatever else they could, but Jamie is up looking for her damn cat and it all goes to hell?” 

“Yeah, pretty much.” Jonny filled Louis in on the rest and promised to call if he had any new information.

Louis was about to head in to help the techs pack up when Harry came down stairs. Louis was astonished at the changes in the man. His eyes were bright and sparkling, his posture was confident and relaxed and his smile was– well Louis couldn’t quite put words to what that smile was. 

Harry practically skipped down the stairs to where Louis was waiting. “She’s sound asleep. You can wait to talk to her, right?”

“Yeah, I can wait– oomph.” Louis was suddenly deprived of breath as Harry wrapped himself around him.

“Thank you.” Harry whispered brokenly. “I can’t even begin to say how much this means to me. You brought her home.”

Louis patted his back. “I was just doing my job.”

Harry stepped back and gave Louis’ shoulder a firm shake. “No! Don’t you dare undervalue what you did. You brought my child home to me, you gave me back my family. You saved her life and mine at the same time.” He insisted ferociously. “There should be a reward!” His eyes lit up. “I could give you one!” 

Louis stepped away from Harry shaking his head. “No, I’m sorry, I can’t accept anything from you.”

“But you–“ 

“It’s against regulations.” Louis explained gently. “And I don’t do this for the reward. Seeing you and Jamie together, that’s why I do what I do.” He had to smile at Harry crestfallen expression. “Though, there is someone who does deserve a reward. He was responsible for us finding Jamie as quickly as we did.”

“Who?”

“David Kirkland.”

“Penny’s David?”

“Yes, he was the one who told us where to find Jamie.”

Harry’s shoulders stiffened. “How did he know?”

“Calm down.” Louis placed a comforting hand on Harry’s arm, that was when he realised Harry was holding the receiver from a child monitor. “Come, let’s go sit and I’ll tell you everything.”

“I want tea.” Harry headed to the kitchen leaving Louis no choice but to follow. 

By the time Louis arrived Harry already had the kettle plugged in and was taking the tea out of the cupboard.

“So tell me, how did David know where my daughter was?”

Louis explained how David was connected to Danova and what he had done to get the information.

By the time Louis had finished, Harry’s eyes were wide with shock. “He could have been killed!”

“He thought it was his fault that they had Jamie.” Louis had been rather afraid that Harry might see it that way, he needn’t have worried.

“Why, because he told some old friends about his girlfriend’s cool job?”

“Well, yes.”

“I would have done the same thing if my– er boyfriend’s boss was a famous musician.”

“Me too.” Louis agreed.

“But he went there, knowing that thug probably had Jamie and that he was dangerous, he went there knowing he could get himself killed, because he needed to help us get Jamie back.”

“Mostly because he’s a good kid. Never had a lot of breaks, but a good kid.”

Harry seemed to mull this over carefully as he prepared their tea. “Okay, good, that– yeah, that’s good.” He muttered more to himself than Louis.

“I take it you have a plan?”

“Hmm?” Harry turned to look at him. “Oh, yeah. A plan, for sure.” He poured the tea just as Niall came galloping into the room and swept him up into a hug.

“SHE”S BACK!” Niall danced Harry around the room.

“She is.’ And with that Harry broke down completely in his best friend’s arms.

 

 

Louis was in a less than charitable mood by the time he entered the interview room the next morning to speak to Luka Danova. He had spent most of the night before listening to two professional thieves talk about how their business with Danova had led them to kidnap and murder. He dropped Danova’s sizable file on the table, cautioned him and informed him they were being recorded. “Good afternoon, Luka, my name is Detective Inspector Louis Tomlinson.” Louis sat across from the man responsible for Jamie Styles’ kidnapping and Penny Dempsey’s death.

“Good for you, you wanna tell me why I’m here?” Danova was a tall, broad, blonde with ice blue eyes and a square jaw. He might have been good looking if his eyes hadn’t been so empty.

“Well, we have a few things we’d like to discuss with you. First and foremost the contracting of Brendan Larson and Adrian Gray to break into the home of Harry Styles and steal approximately one hundred and fifty thousand pounds worth of watches.”

Luka raised a bored brow. “Don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“Well, that seems quite strange to me as Mister Larson and Mister Gray were both quite certain you were the one to hire them to do the job. Oh and a Miss Crystal Anderson, was the one who told you the watches were there in the first place.”

“Who?”

“Ah, I’m sure the young lady will be heartbroken you don’t remember her, since she going to do jail time for slipping you the information from the insurance office where she works.”

Danova just sniffed. “Nothing to do with me.”

“Of course not. Well then I suppose the kidnapping of a minor child for the purpose of extortion has nothing to do with you either.”

“Nope.”

“Didn’t think so. How about the murder of Penny Dempsey?”

“Who?”

Louis leaned forward. “You stick to that story, Luka, you keep playing dumb. I have three people, none of them with a single violent crime on their file, willing to say you were the one who planned everything, gave every order.”

“Three people who, from what you tell me, are the ones who committed the actual crimes.” Danova started to get to his feet.

Louis shoved him back down with a hand on his shoulder and leaned in close to whisper in his ear. “What you’re not getting, what you don’t know, is that the clever Mister Larson is a professional, and very careful. He’s not a fan of mistakes, or violence by the way, but he _really_ hates mistakes, so he’s very careful to avoid both and he wasn’t happy when you made them keep little Jamie Styles.” Louis dropped back into his own seat and watched Danova’s already pale face lose even more colour. “So you see, Luka, we have your voice telling those men what to do and when to do it.”

“You can’t use it in court.”

“Ah, but that is entirely up to the judge. Now, it may very well get thrown out, but are you willing to take that chance?”

“I think I should talk to my Solicitor.”

Louis smirked and left the room. He knew the second any half-decent solicitor got a look at the evidence, compounded by Danova’s already lengthly criminal history, they would recommend Danova take a deal and they could put the son-of-a-bitch away for a good long while.

Louis joined his team in the conference room. “He asked for his solicitor.”

“You can’t exactly be surprised.” Liam said, taking the pictures down off the white board and cataloguing them for the crown prosecutor’s use.

“No. But I like it when they just roll over.” He started cataloguing the files piled on the table. “Makes it easier.” 

“Guy like Danova thinks he’s untouchable.”

“Yeah, well, let’s hope this time he’s wrong.” Louis shuffled a few more papers around. “Did Zayn get back to us?”

“Yeah, three of Danova’s boys cut a deal with the crown for their testimony. He’s thrilled to get them and him off the street.” 

“That’s good, we don’t know what a judge will do with that recording.”

“We have enough that we don’t need it. With David Kirkland and the others, we have a solid case.”

“Yeah.”

Liam dropped into the seat next to Louis. “What’s up. This is good, we got the bad guys, a little girl is home, it’s one in the win column.”

“Yeah, I know. I just–“ Louis blew out a frustrated breath. “I just can’t stop thinking about Harry having to tell Jamie what happened to Penny. That maybe if we’d had the case from the beginning we might have brought them both home safe.”

“I don’t know mate. We would have looked a Harry first, same as Rodgers did.”

“We both knew in our first interview that he had nothing to do with it. We would have talked to Kirkland earlier, we would have found the connection to Danova earlier.” Louis got up and began to pace. “We would have had two extra days!”

“Lou–“

“No, I’m sick of shitty police work. We shouldn’t have to come in behind someone like Rodgers and clean up the mess he made.” He leaned against the wall and tipped his head back. “If anything those fucking idiots did, jeopardises this case in any way. . .”

“DI Tomlinson?” The uniformed officer looked reluctant to interrupt Louis’ rant. “There’s a call for you on line two.”

Louis picked up. “Tomlinson.”

“Uh, hey, it’s Harry, Harry Styles.”

“Harry.” Louis shot a look across the room at Liam. “Is everything okay?”

“Oh, yes everything is wonderful! I’m calling to invite you and the rest of your amazing team to dinner.”

“That–“

“No, please, let me do this. It’s the least we can do and Jamie wants to say thank you as well.”

“Hi, Detetive Tomlinson.”

Louis closed his eyes in resignation. “Hi, Jamie.”

“Are you going to come to my house for a barbeque?”

“I would love to come to your house for a barbeque!”

“Can you bring all your friends who helped me and my daddy?”

“I will do that.”

“Okay! Yay! DADDY, HE SAID YES!”

Louis could hear the laughter in Harry voice when he came back on the line. “So we’ll see you Saturday afternoon? Say about three?”

“You don’t fight fair.”

“Your whole team is invited of course.”

“You’re used to people saying yes to you, aren’t you.”

“Tell them to bring their wives, husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends, kids, whatever.”

Louis had to chuckle. “I’ll tell them.” He hesitated a moment. “That’s quite a few people.”

“Good. The more the merrier.”

“I’m going to assume you’ve never seen cops eat.”

Harry laughed merrily. “I spend most of my time with a tour road crew. You wanna see people who can eat!” 

“Kay, you win, we’ll be there.”

“Good, we’ll be looking forward to it.”

“See you Saturday.”

“Bye, Louis.”

Louis turned to find his entire team staring at him. “We’ve been invited to the Styles’ place for a thank you barbeque.” Before any of them could say anything he continued. “By Jamie.”

“Wow.” Glenne breathed. “I– Wow.”

“Aw, Glenney, you gonna be able to hold it together?” Jonny teased.

“Fuck off, have you seen him?”

“Don’t think you’re his type.” Stan joined in.

“Pfft who cares. I don’t want to shag him, I just like looking at him and his music is great.” She sent a glare around the room. “An improvement of scenery would be appreciated.”

“OI!” Andy protested. “You really think he’s better looking than our own Detective Sergeant Beefcake?” He stepped around the table to avoid the swing Liam took at him. 

Louis started to laugh. “Oh, shit, I’ll never forget the look on your face when that tab called you that.”

Liam raised one eyebrow. “Fuck each and every one of you.” 

“Awe, c’mon Liam, you know you love it. Hell, Zayn framed the thing.” Louis joined Andy on the other side of the table.

“Kiss my– DCS Winston!”

Louis turned to find their boss in the doorway.

“Detective Sergeant Beefcake.” Ben smirked as he entered the room. “I wanted to say thank you, to all of you. That was some great work you did on the Styles case.”

“Thank you, Sir.” Louis answered for his team.

“Everyone is very happy with what you accomplished and how quickly you worked.”

“We’re just happy we got Jamie home safe.” Louis hesitated a moment before continuing. “Sir, Mister Styles has invited all of us to a barbeque at his home on Saturday.”

“That was kind of him.”

“So you’ll be there?” The others turned to stare at Louis. 

Ben fought a smile. “I think I’ll leave that to you lot.”

“At least stop by, Sir, you should meet him, and Jamie.”

“I’ll think about it.” Ben started to leave then turned back. “That was some very good work you did, you should all be very proud.”

 

Later that week Louis was trying to make his way through the paperwork he was convinced was breeding on his desk when his phone rang. “Tomlinson.”

“Hey Lou.”

Louis sat up straight, it was Cara Delevingne , one of the Junior Assistant Crown Prosecutors on the Styles case. “Tell me you have happy news for me.”

“Luka Danova is cutting a deal.”

Louis dropped his head on his desk and was silent for a moment.

“Lou?”

“Ya, Care.”

“You okay?”

“So everyone involved has cut a deal, no trials?”

“No trials. The families can start healing.”

Louis sat back up. “Thanks, love. Have you told the families yet?”

“No, Richard gets to make those calls.” 

“Okay, that’s great news. Hey, how’d you like to be my date for a thing tomorrow?”

“What kind of thing?”

“A barbeque at Harry Styles’ place, little Jamie wants to say thank you.”

“Why do you need me?”

“I don’t need you, I just thought you might like to meet the people you just saved the pain of a trial, and that they might like to meet the woman who worked non-stop for the last four days to make that happen.”

“So, no cover story?”

“Nope, just thought you should be there too.”

“I– okay, sounds fun. Plus I get to meet Harry Styles, which, Yay!”

“Jesus, another one?”

“What? Oh please, are you trying to tell me you don’t think he’s fucking gorgeous? You’ve met him!”

“I met a grieving and terrified father.” Louis sniffed piously.

Cara was silent for a second before she burst into laughter. “So, he’s even better looking in person?”

“Seriously, Care, he was a wreck most of the time when we were together and he was still one of the most beautiful men I’ve ever met.”

“Ha!”

“Shut up.”

“Don’t have to.”

“Listen–“

“Nope.”

“Cara.”

“Oh, hush, I promise I won’t embarrass you.”

“Cara. . .”

“What time you picking me up?”

Louis sighed and gave up, he had asked her after all. “Two-thirty.”

“Yay! Love you.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

 

Louis flung his front door open. “You do know this was the first lie-in I’ve had in months, right?”

Cara just fluttered her hands at him. “Oh, you’ll live.” She barged past him. 

“Why didn’t you just use your key?”

“I was being polite, it’s early.”

Louis just gaped at her, then gave up. “Why are you here?”

“I’ve nothing to wear.”

Louis ran his hand over his face and through his hair. “What?”

“Tonight, the party.” Cara waved her hand in front of his face. 

“You woke me up at ass o’clock on Saturday morning because you can’t figure out what to wear to a barbeque?” Louis turned and headed back to his bedroom. “Go ‘way.” He climbed back into bed and pulled the covers over his head.

Cara climbed in with him. “Not sure why you think this would work now, it never has.”

“Cara, love, there is a very big difference between now and school or Uni.”

“Oh really? And what would that be– eeeeeee!”

Louis had hooked his foot under the back of her legs and in one swift movement had her pinned under him on the bed. “I have hand-to-hand training.”

Cara tried to wiggle out from under him but was completely trapped. “You’re mean.”

“I’m not the one who showed up at the crack of dawn because she can’t dress herself.” Louis flopped back onto his bed and dragged his pillow over his face. 

“Ten o’clock is not the crack of dawn, Lewis.” Cara gave him a shove that put him on the floor. “Now, you’re going to help me decide what to wear.”

“Jeans, wear jeans and a nice top.”

“I can’t wear jeans!”

“For fuck’s sake, why not?” Louis whined.

“It’s Harry Styles’ house.”

Louis rolled his eyes dramatically. “You do realise he’s just a person, right. He doesn’t have magical powers, or pet unicorns, or fart rainbows.”

“But–“

“He invited us to a barbeque hosted by his six-year-old. It’s casual, Carebear, relax.” He sighed when all he got in return was an all too familiar look. “Wear that yellow dress with the things.” He indicted her shoulders. “ It’s pretty, you look amazing in it and it’s about right for a barbeque.”

“What are you wearing?”

“Shorts and a shirt. It’s meant to be hot as balls today so I plan to be comfortable.”

It was Cara’s turn to roll her eyes. “You’re never going to catch a great guy if you don’t even try.”

“Care. . . “

“Fine, I’m going. See you at two-thirty.” With that she skipped out of the room.

Louis waited until he heard the door close behind her before crawling back into bed. He almost cried when his phone rang. “If you ask me what to wear, I’m going to have you killed.”

“Good morning to you too, partner.” Liam chirped. “What pissed in your cheerios?”

“Cara.”

“Ahh.” Liam was all too familiar with the cheerful blonde’s antics.

“I was having a perfectly good sleep when she had a wardrobe crisis.”

“I don’t care.”

“Neither did I!” Louis wailed. 

“Whatever. Are you taking anything?”

“What?”

“To Styles’, are you taking anything?”

Louis counted to ten under his breath. “Do any of you people ever get out?”

“Huh, what are you on about?”

“First, Cara can’t decide what to wear, and now you want to know what makes a good host gift?”

“Well, yeah, I was thinking a nice bottle of wine, but he probably buys the really good stuff and I–“

“Flowers, buy flowers for Jamie. She’s our hostess. Something nice, maybe a bit tropical, she likes the jungle.”

“Oh, yeah? Cool, thanks, Lou, see you later.”

Louis gave up on more sleep and padded barefoot back out of his bedroom. He lifted the blanket off the birdcage in the corner of his living room. “Good morning, my loves!” The lovebirds it contained chirped and squeaked their joy at seeing him. He opened the door and they climbed to the perch on top of the cage. He fussed about getting them fresh food and water all the while filling them in on his day. “You two are going to have to keep each other company this evening. I’m going to a party.” The little green female climbed onto his hand and up his arm to nuzzle his ear. “Oh, Sandy, my sweet, I know, I miss you too, but at least you have your Danny to keep you company.” He rubbed the head of the male lovebird who had climbed into the pocket of his t-shirt. 

He went about getting himself breakfast chatting at his little feathered passengers, he was telling them about his latest case when he caught a glimpse of the calendar on the refrigerator. “Oooh, damn, gotta give Lottie a call.” He ran back to the bedroom to grab his mobile.

“I was beginning to think you’d forgotten me.” His oldest baby sister reprimanded in lieu of a greeting.

“It isn’t even noon, Lotts. Happy Birthday!”

“Thank you.”

“Mum has your gift, she said you’re going to be there for dinner.”

“Yeah, going there then out with the girls.”

“Sounds fun.”

“Yeah. So any news on your end?”

Louis rolled his eyes. “Here? Nope, nothing exciting.”

“Don’t be a dick.”

“OI!”

“Well, you save Harry Styles’ daughter’s life and you don’t even tell me, I have to see it on the telly! What kind of brother are you?”

“It was a case, Lottie.”

“Pffft, it’s Harry fucking Styles.”

“Hey, language!”

“I’m twenty-years-old, Louis.”

“Are not, and you shouldn’t swear.”

“Uh huh. So tell me, what’s he like?”

“Lotts. . .”

“Aw, c’mon, Lou, I can’t talk about boys with Fizz, at least not ones like Harry, he bathes too often for her.”

“Is she still seeing Jason the hygienephobe?”

“He is just so creepy!” Lottie exclaimed. “He just– ick. So about Harry?”

“He’s. . . nice, a nice guy, with a cute kid, who’s been through hell and back in the last week.”

“Yeah, I guess he has.”

“Yeah.”

“Are they okay?”

“They have a really good tight family, I think they’ll be fine. But it’ll take some time.” They chatted for a few more minutes, Louis strategically forgetting to tell his sister he was spending the evening at the Styles home. “I gotta go, Lotts, hugs to all and behave yourself.”

“Nah.” With that she hung up.

By the time one o’clock rolled around Louis was cursing Cara. Standing in front of his open closet, his hair still wet and a towel around his waist. “I had no problem with what I was planning on wearing until she showed up.” He complained to Sandy who was perched on his dresser tearing a tissue apart. “No, you know what? It’s summer, it’s hot, and it’s a garden barbeque.” He grabbed a simple white t-shirt and navy shorts. “I want to be comfortable.” Sandy squeaked her support and Louis brushed his finger over her little green head. “You’re such a good girl.” He finished getting ready and after he had tucked the birds back into their cage he headed to Cara’s.

Louis had to laugh when he saw Cara waiting on the pavement outside her building. “Well isn’t this a nice change of pace. Maybe I should introduce you to pop-stars more often.”

“Oh, right, because I was the one who was late to every single Friday morning class for three years running.” Cara smoothed her hair and batted her lashes at Louis. “Not to mention your partner has never been on time for anything, even by accident.”

“He’s on time for work every day, I’ll have you know.”

“Yeah.” Cara snorted. “After his first Duty Sergeant suspended him three times and threatened to give him the boot if he didn’t clean up his act.”

“How the hell do you know that? Even I didn’t know that.”

Cara smiled sweetly and shrugged. “It’s amazing what people tell you when they’ve had a few too many.”

“Liam? Please, he quiet as a mouse when he’s drunk”

“Yeah, but his boyfriend isn’t.” Cara answered smugly.

Louis burst out laughing. “Oh, my God, you got dirt on Liam from Zayn?”

“Hey, he’s always giving me a hard time because of the stories you’ve told him, so I thought turn around was fair play.” Cara turned in her seat to face Louis. “I’m nervous.”

“You should be, if Liam finds out you’ve been quizzing Zayn about him he’ll kill you.”

“Oh pfffttt.” She waved her hand. “I’m more afraid of Sandy and Danny than I am of Liam Payne. No, I meant I’m nervous about meeting Harry. I mean I almost met him, but Richard was the one who interviewed him and Jamie, big shots and all that.”

“He really is just a guy, Carebear. He’s nice and friendly so you have nothing to worry about.”

“But he’s about the most famous singer in the whole world!”

“Don’t know if I’d go that far, but, still, just a guy.” As he was saying that he pulled up to the gate in front of the Styles’ house.

Cara gasped. “I can’t go in there!”

Louis pressed the button to announce them. “Louis Tomlinson.” Then turned back to Cara. “Just a guy.”


	4. Went to a Garden Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jamie hosts a party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive thank you to my beta/Britpickers the wonderful
> 
> [Lou](http://wariormum.tumblr.com), [Sheena](http://conscious--ramblings.tumblr.com) and Sam

Chapter 4

Went to a Garden Party

 

Louis was amused that his normally bubbly and gregarious friend was for all intents and purposes, hiding behind him as they were admitted to the house by Niall, a situation made even more hilarious by the fact that in her heeled sandals she was a good five centimetres taller than him. 

“Louis, great to see ya, mate!” The Irishman grabbed him into a tight hug. “I’m glad you’re here.” He took a step back and noticed Cara. He seemed a bit taken aback for a moment, but recovered nicely. “Hi, I’m Niall.”

Cara smiled nervously. “I uh, I’m Cara.” 

Niall’s smile widened. “No need to be nervous, we don’t bite unless asked.”

“Do I have to say please?” Cara cheeked.

Niall’s eyes widened delightedly, but before he could say anything Harry and Jamie came down the stairs. “Detetive Tomlinson!” Jamie cried. “You’re here!” The little girl ran to Louis and threw her arms around his waist.

Louis knelt to her level. “I wouldn’t miss your party for the world.” He picked up the bag he’d brought with him. “I brought you something to thank you for inviting me.” 

Jamie looked up at the father. “But it’s not my birthday.”

“It’s okay, you’re the hostess today, it’s tradition.” Harry answered.

Jamie didn’t look convinced but opened the gift with a shrug, presents are presents. “Ohhhh!” She breathed. “Daddy, look.” She held up the life-size stuffed sloth. “He looks so real!” 

“Your dad said you liked them but I didn’t see one in your tree, so when I saw this guy, I knew where he needed to live.”

“Oh Detetive Tomlinson, he’s just so perfect.” Jamie declared dramatically, to the amusement of the adults. “Daddy, can I go put him in my room?”

Harry shook his head. “If I know you it will take you two hours to decide just where he needs to go in your tree, so he will have to wait.”

Jamie pouted slightly then turned to Louis. “What’s your real name?”

“I’m sorry?”

“She means your first name?” Harry provided.

“Oh, okay. My name is Louis.”

Jamie nodded, seemingly happy with that answer. That was when she noticed Cara. “Hi.”

Cara waved. “Hi there.” She handed Jamie a small bag. “I got you a little something too.”

Jamie grinned and opened the bag. “Oh, they’re so pretty.” She showed everyone the delicate dragonflies. “They can go in my tree too.”

“That’s what I hoped.”

Jamie studied her suspiciously. “How do you know about my tree?”

“Louis told me how wonderful it is.”

“Do you want to see it?” Jamie bounced on her toes hopefully.

“Later, bug.” Harry answered. “You can show Miss. . .”

Louis winced. “Ooops, my manners. Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Miss Jamie Styles, this is Cara Delevingne, she works in the Crown Prosecutor’s office.”

“You’re very pretty, are you Detetive Tomlinson’s girlfriend?” Jamie asked in the bold way only a child could.

Louis decided Cara’s answering laugh was an insult. “No, she absolutely is not my girlfriend.”

“You needn’t sound so adamant, love.” Cara giggled before answering Jamie. “I’m not his girlfriend, but I have been his best friend since we were a little bit younger than you.”

Jamie’s eyes widened. “That’s a really long time.”

All the adults laughed at the unintended insult. “Hey, bug, why don’t we take your guests out back and get them something to drink?”

Jamie clapped happily. “Okay, Daddy. Everybody, follow me.” She scampered down the hall and disappeared before anyone else could move.

“She’s adorable.” Cara exclaimed.

“Thank you.” Harry smiled softly. “I think so too.” He turned to Cara. “Delevingne? You’re the prosecutor who helped convince Danova to take a deal? Mister Griffiths mentioned you.”

“I am.” Caras answered carefully. Victims were not always happy when a deal was struck with a defendant.

“Thank you, thank you so much.” Harry swallowed hard. “I was so afraid we would have to go through a trial and I didn’t want that for Jamie. Or for me to be honest. So thank you.” He pulled her into a hug.

Cara froze for a moment before returning the embrace. “It was my pleasure.”

Harry stepped back, his smile soft. “Niall, could you take Cara through. I need to speak to Louis a moment.”

“Always happy to have a lovely lady on my arm.” Niall did indeed offer Cara his arm, which she took with a giggle.

Harry watched them walk away before turning to Louis. “Can you make some time this afternoon to talk to Jamie? She has some questions for you. She won’t tell me what they are but. . . “

“Of course. Do you want to be there or does she not want you to hear these questions?”

“She won’t tell me why she wants to talk to you, so it’s probably best if I’m not there.” Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “She’s sleeping with me every night. She starts in her own room, but as soon as I go to bed she crawls in with me.”

“That’s not terribly surprising, she had quite an experience.”

“Oh, no, I understand why she’s doing it. I’m just not sure I’m doing everything I can to help her through this.”

Louis started to speak but was interrupted by the doorbell. “”Why don’t we talk about this when we have some time, yeah?”

Harry nodded and ran his hand down Louis’ arm. “Thank you.” He flashed that knee dissolving smile before going to answer the door.

Louis made his way out to the back garden to find Cara, Niall and Jamie kicking a football around.

“Oh, there he is. You should get Louis to play football with you Jamie, he’s a proper player.”

Louis rolled his eyes at Cara, but set his sunglasses and wallet on the table. “I’m on Jamie’s team!”

The little girls face lit up and her dimples flashed happily. “YAY!” She spotted Harry leading several of Louis’ team out of the house. “Daddy, are you gonna play?”

“Let me get everyone settled, Bug, and then we can all play.”

One rousing football game later, Jamie’s team won, and everyone was lounging about drinking beer and eating the fabulous grilled food.

“So this one, being a newbie and as trusting as a lamb, just walks over to where the girls are and suddenly, it’s like a zombie apocalypse. Hundreds of them just poured out of the parking garage and surrounded him.” Niall cackled as he waved his beer in the air to emphasise his point. “There’s our boy, in a full blown panic trying desperately to get away, but still, being the cupcake he is, he doesn’t want to hurt any of these girls, who by the way are tearing his clothes and pulling his hair. Finally, me and the other boys in the band wade into them and drag his sorry arse to safety. All the while, he keeps telling us to be careful and not to hurt the girls. Me, I didn’t care, the first one who pinched me or pulled my hair was going down!” 

“Heeeyy, they were mostly just kids.” Harry protested.

“Kids my a– er arm. They bruised you and left you with skin burns and bald spots!” Niall countered.

Jeff shook his head. “I’ve seen it happen, but never really thought about how scary it must be to be in the middle of all that.”

Louis was just listening to them tease and chatter when Jamie approached him. “Hey, pumpkin. Are you having fun?”

Jamie nodded and climbed up onto his lounge chair. “Wanna help me put Louis Sloth in his tree?”

Louis exchanged a look with Harry, when he nodded, Louis smiled at Jamie. “I would love to find Louis Sloth the perfect spot.”

Jamie led him upstairs to her room. “I want everybody to see him.” She stood back and contemplated her tree-house bed carefully. 

“Well, what about right here.” Louis held the sloth over the opening to the bed.

“‘Kay, but just a little bit that way.” 

Louis adjusted the sloth as requested and smiled when Jamie clapped her hands. “Perfect!” It took a bit of doing to get the stuffed toy exactly the way she wanted it, but in the end Jamie was delighted. “He’s just so beautiful.” She sighed. “I always wanted a sloth, but we couldn’t find the right one, but you did.” She patted Louis on the knee. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Louis stood back to admire his handiwork. Giving Jamie the time she needed to decide whether to talk to him.

“Detetive Tomlinson?”

“Why don’t you just call me Louis, pet.”

“Nuh uh, not allowed to call grown ups by their real name unless they’re my uncle like Uncle Niall or Uncle Simon or– ” she stuttered to a stop.

“Or who?”

“I got to call Miss Penny by her real name.” She chewed on her lip. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.” Louis waved to the little sitting area with its brightly cushioned bamboo furniture. “Should we go sit down.”

“‘Kay.” 

Jamie played with the hem of her top as she settled into her chair. “My daddy says you catched all the bad men.”

“We did.”

“All of them?”

“Yes, we caught all of them.” Louis tried to keep his voice gentle, but reassuring.

“So they can’t come hurt my daddy?”

Louis moved to kneel in front of her. “Oh, pet, no! Is that what has you so worried?”

“They hurt Miss Penny, they– they made her go to– to heaven, and the mean man told me if I was bad they would hurt my Daddy!” There were big fat tears dripping down her cheeks by the time she finished.

Louis tipped her chin up so he could see her face. “The bad men are all going to jail. We caught all of them. Cara? My pretty friend? It’s her job to put the bad men in jail. Me and Liam and the other police, we catch them, but Cara, she makes sure they go to jail.”

“And she made sure?”

“She did.”

“Even the nice man?”

Louis winced, he knew that Larson had protected Jamie and had tried to make sure she was at least unharmed. “The nice man was still very bad, so he has to go to jail too.”

“Oh. Cuz he was really nice to me, and was really mad at the other men. He yelled at the big, mean, man to take me back to my room.” 

“I know pet, but sometimes even nice people do bad things and they have to be punished for them.”

Jamie mulled this over. “But mean, bad people get punished more, right?” 

Louis was happy he was able to be honest with her. “Yes, the mean man is getting punished more.” The fact that Larson was the first to cut a deal and had been cooperative from the start had gone a long way to ensuring he did less time than the others.

“So they can’t hurt my daddy?”

“No, little love, they can’t hurt your daddy.”

“Okay.” With that she burst into a flood of tears and threw herself at Louis.

Louis held her in his lap and rocked her. “Shhh, you’re safe, and so is your daddy.”

Jamie calmed down to the occasional hiccough and sniffle before she lifted her head. She looked up at Louis for a few seconds before she kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, pet.” He smoothed her hair back. “Is there anything else you want to ask me?”

Jamie wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. “No. Just about my daddy.” 

“Should we go back down stairs then?” 

Jamie nodded. “Kay.” She bounded off his knee. “We could go swimming!”

Louis had to marvel at the resiliency of the young. “How ‘bout we wash your face and then we’ll see about a swim, okay?”

Jamie skipped to the door of her ensuite. “If you don’t have a swimsuit we have a whole bunch in the pool house.”

After a quick wash to take care of tear stains and runny noses, Louis and Jamie joined the others on the pool deck. Jamie made a dash for the pool house while Louis went to Harry’s side. They stood quietly for a few minutes until Jamie came bounding out and ran to the pool.

“Is she–“ Harry hesitated. “I–“

“She’s okay, she had a few questions and was happy with my answers.” 

“Okay, that– okay.” 

“Hey.” Louis laid a gentle hand on Harry’s arm. “Just make sure she knows you’re there, that no matter what, she can talk to you. If you notice changes in her behaviour then maybe think about having her see someone. But for right now she just needs to be close and to know everything is good and safe.”

“Thank you.” Harry’s smile brightened as he saw Jamie playing with Stan’s three year old in the shallowest part of the pool. “She had a lot of questions about Penny and that was a horrible conversation, but she seemed to understand. I just don’t want there to be anything sneaking in when I didn’t see it coming.”

“Just–“ 

“Daddy! Detetive Tomlinson, come swimming!” 

Harry turned back to Louis. “We have enough swimsuits for everyone.”

 

Everyone ended up in the pool. The grown ups taking turns being various different kinds of water craft for the kids. Louis had just finished playing tugboat for Glenne and Jeff’s little boy and Harry’s goddaughter Lux when Niall cornered him. “Hey, mate.”

Louis nodded. “Niall.”

“So, you having fun?”

“I am.” 

“Good, that’s good.”

“You?” 

“Yeah, bit surprised, I always figured cops would be uptight, but you lot are good people.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Oh, shi, er shoot, I didn’t mean no insult.”

Louis waved his apology away. “No worries.”

“So, you and Cara have been friends since you were kids?”

“Yup, ever since her family moved in across the street when we were five.” He had to bite back a smile, Niall’s interrogation technique could use some work.. “I couldn’t understand a damn thing she said.”

“Huh? Why not?”

“They moved there from Halkirk.”

“Okay?”

A bark of laughter interrupted Louis answer. “Louis here, being a Yorkshire lad, had a tough time with Cara’s highland accent.” Harry provided, obviously having been eavesdropping.

Louis grinned. “I had no clue what she was saying, me poor mum had a hard time convincing me she was speaking English.”

“But she sounds the same as you do.” Niall protested. 

Louis exchanged a look with Harry. “Yeah, because she lived in Doncaster from the time she was five.” 

“Oh, yeah, I guess. So is she seeing anyone?”

Louis and Harry both burst out laughing.

Niall rolled his eyes at them. “You two can fu– fudge right off.” He swam over to where Cara was chatting with Glenne and Liam.

“Is he always that forward?”

“Niall?” Harry chortled. “That was actually subtle for him.”

They sat quietly watching the kids play chicken with Liam, Jonny, and Harry’s security guard, Dale, for a few moments. “Can I ask you something?’

Louis shifted so he was facing Harry. “Sure.”

“I just can’t help noticing that almost everyone on your team is married, is that typical?”

Louis considered it for a moment. “You know, I’ve never thought about it. But yeah, most of the cops I know are married.” He tilted his chin toward Liam, who had swum up behind Zayn and wrapped himself around him. “Those two are actually the last ones left, and they’re getting married in October.”

“So then it will be everyone.”

“Yeah.”

“Except you.”

“Yeah.” Louis fidgeted with the drawstring on his swim shorts. “I uh, my last relationship kind of blew up when a bust went bad and I got hurt.”

Harry’s eyes widened and his face paled. “Oh no, what happened?”

“I’m fine now.” Louis reassured. “Things just sometimes go bad, you can’t always rely on the bad guys doing things the way you want them to, I got hurt and that was it.”

“But that’s awful, to walk out on someone for doing their job and when they’re hurt.” Harry was clearly offended on Louis’ behalf.

“Yeah, well, to be fair, my ex had never been thrilled with my job–“

“Were you a police officer when you met?”

“I was but–“

“So it’s not like there were any great surprises.”

“No, but I don’t think anyone who gets mixed up with a cop really understands what that means until it’s too late. Our hours can suck when we’re on a case. We tend to talk to our partners more than our _partners._ Now that I’m on major crimes it’s not as bad because it’s mostly investigative work, but when we were together I was working gangs which meant close quarters with a lot of really scary people. My informant double crossed me and I got stuck. It can just be tough on anyone who wants a relationship, a lot of the normal rules just don’t apply.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

Louis tipped his head back against the side of the pool. “Yeah, I guess you would.”

“For me it’s the road. Being gone for months at a time is tough.” 

“I would think things might be a bit easier now.”

“In what way?”

Louis hesitated not sure if he was overstepping. “Well, at least now whoever you’re with wouldn’t have to hide the fact that he’s with you, that had to have added to the difficulties.”

Harry nodded his agreement. “It did. Not so much the closet, which didn’t help, but all the rumours. I had a girl in every city according to the tabs and a lot of my fans. It was a way of keeping them as far away from the truth as they could get.” 

“But if your boyfriend knew you were gay. . . I don’t– why would the rumours about girls be an issue?”

“I think it was just one of those ‘one thing too many’ kind of things.” Harry closed his eyes and Louis couldn’t help noting the tiny scar just beneath his left eyebrow. “Being a single dad, on the road all the time, not being able to acknowledge our relationship, being linked with some of the most amazing women in the world and not being able to deny it and talk about my real relationship, it just–“ Harry’s eyes opened and met Louis’. “I guess I just haven’t found the right guy.”

 

Louis, Cara, Liam and Zayn were the last ones left, everyone else having taken their little ones home to bed, when Harry stood with a sleeping Jamie in his arms. “Let me just put her to bed–“

“Don’t worry about it, mate, we should be off.” Liam stood, pulling Zayn up with him.

“Oh.” Harry looked at Louis.

“Hey, Li, would you mind giving Cara a lift home? There’s something I need to talk to Harry about.”

Liam tilted his head as though to get a better look at Louis. “Yeah, sure, mate.” He turned to Cara who was also watching Louis carefully. “Looks like you’re riding with us, blondie.”

“Let me call a cab, Li, it’s out of your way.”

“I can run you home.” Niall offered with a cheeky grin. “I would never want to leave such a lovely lady stranded.”

“I wouldn’t want to–“

“Pffft.” Niall scoffed. “Wouldn’t have offered if its was a problem.” 

Cara looped her arms through Niall’s. “Well, lucky me, intelligent conversation, rather than, you know–“ She grinned at Louis. “–Him.”

Louis kissed her on the cheek. “Go away.”

Cara hugged Harry and Jamie. “Thank you so much, I had a wonderful time.”

Harry returned the hug. “You’re welcome. Come back any time, tonight was great! Who would have thought a house full of cops would be a good party!”

After watching the other four drive off, Harry turned to Louis. “Let me get this one to bed and I’ll meet you in the study?”

Louis smiled and placed a gentle kiss on Jamie’s cheek. “Sleep tight, little love.”

Half an hour later Harry entered the room to find Louis at the piano plinking out a tune. “Thank you for staying, I know you probably have better things to do.”

Louis laughed lightly. “Actually, at nine pm most Saturdays I’m sat at home watching a movie drinking a beer and chatting with my birds.”

Harry froze. “Birds?” He choked.

“Yeah, my lovebirds.”

“Oh, you mean actual birds, with feathers.”

‘Well, yeah, what else–“ Louis stopped and considered what he’d said. “Oh, god, you thought I meant–“ He bit back a chuckle. “Yeah, the kind with feathers.”

Harry’s smile returned full force. “Not exactly a party animal?” He set about getting them drinks.

“Oh, I don’t mind a good party, as long as it’s with friends. I guess I’d rather just do something like today, or a few pints at the pub. I did enough hard partying at Uni to last a life time. Though, I still like to go dancing, if I have a partner.”

“Good company, good food, and good drink.” Harry raised his glass.

Louis laughed and joined his toast. He looked around the study/music room. “I like this room. It’s comfortable.”

Harry chuckled. “There are–“ He thought for a moment. “Five common rooms in this house, not including the pool area downstairs, yet we spend almost all our time in here. I could have bought a house half this size and been fine.”

“So why buy something so big?” Louis couldn’t help it, he was naturally nosy, sue him, it was what made him such a great detective.

“It offers a lot more privacy than our old house, being back from the street and having more property around it. I also wanted a place where Jamie could grow up.” He smiled ruefully. “It won’t be too long before hanging out with her dad in his study, won’t be her idea of fun. She’ll want friends over, she’ll want her own space, so this way she can have that and pretend I don’t exist. ”

Louis had to laugh at that one, he remembered well his sisters all trying to carve out a space for themselves in his parent’s small home. “I think you have a few more years before you have to worry about that.”

Harry tipped his head back and closed his eyes. “I want her to stay six forever.” 

“I remember my mum saying the same thing about my sisters.”

Harry fell silent, Louis was willing to give him as much time as he needed so he got up and went to one of the bookcases that covered the walls. Books about music, mixed in with children’s books, song books stood next to cookbooks stood next to classics, which were side by side with current nonfiction and modern best sellers, there were books on gardening, travel, and decorating as well as some that were clearly old and valuable even a few textbooks, it was a wonderfully eclectic and interesting collection. Louis drew a book on the great songwriters of the twentieth century off the shelf and began to flip through it.

“Can you tell me what happened?” Harry finally spoke. “He offered to tell me, the man from the Crown, but I just. . .j“ He stared into his drink a moment. “I didn’t think I wanted to know, but now, I think I need to know. Why? Why it happened. Why they took my baby girl. Why they killed a sweet girl like Penny.”

Louis replaced the book and returned to his seat. “Okay. I can tell you whatever you need to know.”

“They were thieves.”

“Yes. Brendan Larson and Adrian Gray are professional thieves for hire and they are very good at what they do. They are believed responsible for more than three dozen hits that we know of. Until this we had very little on them. Their specialty was getting in and out of occupied homes without anyone being the wiser. Often there was no way of even knowing when they hit the home as it could have been weeks before the items were noticed missing.”

“But they’re not violent?”

“No, never. This is the first time we know of that they’ve even had contact with their victim.”

“So– I–“ Harry broke of when his voice seemed to fail him.

“They were hired by Luka Danova to break in here and steal your watch collection.”

“How did this Danova even know I had a watch collection?”

“We think he became interested in you after his conversation with David Kirkland and did a little research. As I’m sure you know there are several websites dedicated to what you wear and what it’s worth. We do know he got the relevant information about the collection, it’s total value and your security system from a young woman who worked for your insurance agent.” Louis took a sip of his drink. “They had a very well thought out and detailed plan, that went to hell because of Jamie’s cat.”

“Bonkers?”

“The cat usually sleeps with Jamie?”

Harry nodded. “Since he was a kitten.”

“Well for whatever reason, that night he was late going to bed and Jamie went looking for him. She walked right into Larson and Gray at the backdoor.”

“So they took her?”

“Larson wanted to leave her behind. She hadn’t seen their faces, she’s very little, he knew if they got out and left her behind they’d be fine.”

“So why, why the hell did they take her, and why Penny?” Harry closed his eyes and took a shuddering breath. “How could I not hear her?”

“You were asleep in a room on the opposite side of a very large house, you can’t beat yourself up for that. As for why they took her, it was Gray. He was terrified of Danova, and not without reason. He knew Danova wouldn’t be happy if he didn’t get the watches and it’s generally a bad idea to make Luka Danova unhappy. So he grabbed Jamie, Penny was still awake and since her room is right above the kitchen she heard the fuss Jamie made. She started downstairs, saw them and ran back up to call for help but they followed her and caught her. She was afraid to put up too much of a fight because they had Jamie.”

“So they took them both.”

“Yeah, something Larson still wasn’t in favour of doing. They were in masks, they could have tied the girls up and been gone but Gray was in a panic and insisted.”

“And Penny? Why, I mean how– she–”

“It was an accident. She tried to escape from the house where they were holding her and went down the cellar stairs in a struggle with Gray.”

Harry drew in a shaky breath and held it for a few seconds. “Okay, yeah, I didn’t know that.” He picked up his drink but his hand was shaking so violently he to put it down again. “Why did it take so long for them to call me?”

“Larson was in favour of dropping Jamie off at the nearest hospital and leaving the country. Unfortunately, Gray told Danova they had her. He thought the longer you waited the more you’d be willing to pay to get her back.”

“But they had to know the police were involved, it’d been all over the news.”

“That’s why the electronic transfer. They never have to have contact with you. You send them the money and they’re gone.”

“Would they have sent Jamie home?”

Louis hesitated. “I think so. Larson wanted to from the get, and Gray would have backed off once Danova had his money and was no longer a threat.” There was no need to put any more ugly pictures in Harry’s head. 

“Okay, that’s– okay, good.” Harry’s hands were shaking again. “I just keep thinking about Penny. She tried to help, if she didn’t work–“ His voice cracked and broke.

“Harry,” Louis tapped his chin. “Look at me.” Harry turned tormented eyes to Louis. “Penny was doing what she did because she was a good person who loved your daughter. If it hadn’t been her it would have been someone else. You can’t be beating yourself up for something you have no blame in.”

“I know that in my head, but I still feel so awful.”

“Of course you do! A lovely young woman is dead, everyone should feel awful, it’s a tragedy. What you shouldn’t feel is guilty.”

“I just–, she was so young, and so lovely, it–“ Harry stuttered to a stop and dropped his head.

“There are four people headed to a long time in prison for what happened to that lovely young woman, take solace, if you can, in that.”

“Is that what you do?” Harry asked, his eyes still closed.

“I try. Sometimes it works better than others. Mostly I take solace in catching them and making sure they can’t hurt anybody else. A guy like Danova has more than just Penny’s blood on his hands. Some we know about some we don’t and most of them have people they left behind. Those are the people I think about. Penny’s mum, young David, Jamie, you. I did my job and put away the people who hurt all of you.” He laid his hand on Harry’s shoulder and waited until the other man looked at him. “There was absolutely nothing you could have done to change what happened.” 

“If I hadn’t gone out that–“

“Then they would have picked another night to hit the house.”

“But–“ 

“They would have picked another night.” Louis insisted. “They were going to get those watches. They would have waited as long as they needed to.”

Harry sighed and nodded. “It just feels like such a fucking waste. She was bright and lovely and good, and they wasted her life for money.”

“And that’s what sets you apart from them, to you, there is no monetary value you could put on a life, all they see is money.” Harry’s face lightened. “Thank you.”

“It’s the truth.”

“No, not just for that.” Harry waved his hand. “Being here, talking to me like this, having your chat with Jamie, all of it.”

Louis smiled brightly. “All part of the service, sir!”

Harry chuckled his dimples coming out full force. “No, it isn’t but thank you anyways, you’ve gone beyond what anyone else would, it means a lot.” He titled his head as though to get a different perspective on Louis. “You’re very good at what you do, aren’t you? And proud of it?”

Louis smiled bashfully. “Days like today? When I see you playing and laughing with your daughter, damn right I’m proud of what I do. Days like today are why I do this job.”

“Well, I’m glad you do it. I don’t know what would have happened if that fool Rodgers had stayed on the job.” Harry fussed with his hair. “I am planning on filing a formal complaint about him.” He stopped suddenly. “Unless that will impact you and Liam and your team, then–“

Louis held up his hand. “No, if you feel you need to file a complaint, you do that.” Louis chose his next words carefully. “You do what you feel is best for you and Jamie. I know the job I did and am happy with that.”

Harry studied him carefully clearly aware Louis had swerved around his question. “Hmm. Normally I wouldn’t, but he was incompetent, we knew nothing until you came on the case, and the press. . ..” He stuttered to a stop. “I’ve mostly avoided it. But I’m going to have to face it all. They’re giving me a reprieve right now, but it’s going to end and soon, they’re all going to be clamouring for a statement and the first thing they’re all going to ask is if it’s true.”

“You could just refuse to answer, say it’s no one’s business but yours.” 

Harry chuckled ruefully. “‘tis as good as a confirmation, that.”

“But–“

“No, I’m going to have to say something. Make an official statement. It’s out, I’m out. There’s nothing to be done about it.” He got up to pour them fresh drinks. 

Louis held his hand over his glass. “I can’t–“

Harry waved him off. “We’ll get you a car home, you can come get yours tomorrow.” He tilted his head and smiled.

Louis gave in and moved his hand. “Thanks.” He took a sip. “So what will you say, and where?”

“I don’t really know, I want someone I can trust, not some tab hack, a real Journalist.”

“You could talk to Jeff. He’d know who you could trust.”

Harry’s face lit up. “Do you think he’d do it? I know he doesn’t write about entertainment, but that’s why he’d be perfect!”

Louis raised one brow. “I don’t follow.”

Harry sat forward, clearly excited. “Every entertainment writer in this country and several others is going to be begging for this interview, every one of them would have an agenda for the story, one they will follow no matter what I say, hell, half of them would have it written before they even clap eyes on me. They will try to make it as sensational as they can because that’s what they think their readers want, and maybe they do, I don’t know. But I don’t want this story to be sensationalised, this is my life, my family, I want it taken seriously. People take Jeff seriously.” 

“I– all you can do is offer it to him. He’s good, really good and you can trust him. If he can’t or won’t for whatever reason, he would know who can.”

Harry nodded happily. “Yeah, okay, good. I’ve been freaking out about this. I know I have to do it, I just didn’t want it to end up being a farce, again.”

“Bad experience?”

“My PR guy is friends with that hack Wootton at The Sun. I’ve actually given him interviews where none of my own words ended up in the final article.”

“Jesus, seriously?” Louis knew the tabloids were bad but that was just beyond.

“Yeah, I talked about the tour and my music and how I handled being a dad on the road. The Harry in the printed article talked about girls and his secret celebrity crush.”

“Holy shit! And your people approved this?”

“Yeah. You get kind of used to all the bullshit being printed about you, but those are the worst. Why bother interviewing me if you’re going to print whatever you want?”

“Sounds like what you said didn’t fit with the article he wanted to write.”

“I rarely do. I want to talk about my music, they want to talk about who’s in my bed.”

Louis studied him for a moment at a loss trying to imagine what it must be like to be completely dismissed as an artist no matter how hard you try or how good your work. “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine being whittled down to who I’m sleeping with. How does that happen, why?”

Harry gave a sad one-shouldered shrug. “It’s part of their marketing strategy. They were so desperate to make sure no one knew I’m gay, they went way overboard the other way. A different girl every week. Every time I so much as spoke to a woman in public it was assumed she’d been in my bed. They tell me it helps keep the fans hopes up, that they’ll be the next girl I’ll sleep with. Plus it kept people talking. They weren’t saying anything good, but my name was in the tabs, so Yay!”

Louis twisted his mouth and wrinkled his nose. “But why not focus on your music. It’s good.”

“Thanks. To be honest they have been getting a bit better. Once the music publications started writing positive stuff about my last album, and wanting access, then there were a few more interviews and articles focusing on my music, but the entertainment press and the tabs seem to think who I’m with is more interesting.”

Louis shook his head. “I don’t get it. You’re a musician, you write your own stuff, you make good music, I haven’t seen you live but my sister thinks you’re great.”

“It’s pop, unfortunately, people who make pop music have a tough time getting treated like real musicians. I also have the added bonus of coming off the X-Factor, so I’m just a manufactured, talentless, pretty boy, who got lucky.”

“Well, that doesn’t seem quite fair!” Louis protested indignantly. 

Harry actually giggled at that. “Thanks, I don’t think so either, but there’s not much I can do about it.”

“So how do you deal with it?”

Harry shrugged one shoulder. “I protest in my own way. I try to turn the subject to the music every chance I get, I refuse to speak in specifics about my love life, I use gender neutral pronouns, which by the way, pisses them off no end, they particularly hate it when I refuse to badmouth the women I am supposed to have dated.”

“Even the one who wrote the nasty songs about you?” Louis teased lightly.

“She’s the one they bring up, yeah. I don’t really care what she writes, I mean, the whole crapfest worked, it helped raise my profile in America, so. . .”

“I wonder what she’s going to say about you coming out.”

“Something else to add the list of things I don’t care about. She got her hit songs and played it up in the media, acted like a victim beyond what was agreed to, mocked me on two separate awards shows and generally made me look like a jerk. So if she takes some heat on this, too damn bad!”

Louis blinked in surprise. “Not your favourite person then?”

“She was– difficult during our time together. She knew I needed her more than she needed me, and she called the shots.” Harry smirked. “You should have seen the right fit she threw when I refused to let her be seen looking after Jamie.”

“Not a happy bunny?”

“No even a little, she ranted, called her people, called my people, but my contract guarantees I call all the shots where Jamie is concerned.”

“As you should.” Louis was feeling slightly vengeful on Harry’s behalf.

“Thank you. It wasn’t easy, believe me, and Devon was determined to be seen interacting like she was somehow part of Jamie’s life, insisted it made it more believable.” Harry snorted. “I dated Alec for months and he never even met Jamie.”

“Really?”

“I just– I didn’t want people in and out of her life. She knew Mike, but only after we’d been together about six months. I just want things to be as stable as possible.”

“That makes sense.”

“Thanks. Our life is strange enough, I try to at least keep the people around me a constant.”

“I noticed that when we were doing background on your people, most of them have been with you a long time.”

“They’re my family.” 

“It’s nice that you have people around you that you can trust.”

“If it wasn’t for them I don’t think I would have been able to do what I’ve done, and been the kind of father I want to be.” 

Louis’ smile must have changed somehow, because Harry arched an eyebrow at him before asking, “What’s that look for?”

Louis just shook his head, still smiling. “I just can’t quite get over the idea that you’re this massive star and what you care about most is being a good dad, it’s not quite what I was expecting when I took over this case.”

“Oh? And what exactly where you expecting?”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong.” Louis protested. “I knew you had a reputation as a nice guy, but–“ He cut himself off.

“But you thought it might all just be part of my hype?”

“No! That’s not it, I guess I just didn’t expect you to be the kind of guy who would drop all of this in a flash if he thought it was harming his child.”

Harry shrugged easily. “She’s my daughter.”


	5. Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jamie's home safe, now Harry must deal with the fallout.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive thank you to my beta/Britpickers the wonderful
> 
> [Lou](http://wariormum.tumblr.com), [Sheena](http://conscious--ramblings.tumblr.com) and Sam

Chapter 5

Changes

“Soooooo. . .”

Louis looked up from the mountain of paperwork under which he was currently buried to see his partner standing over him with a knowing smirk on his face. “Can I help you?”

“Did you have a good time after we left on Saturday?” Liam leaned his hip against Louis’ desk.

Louis raised an eyebrow at Liam. ”Explaining to a man the details of the crime that led to the kidnapping of his child and the murder of a beloved employee?”

Liam’s smile drooped instantly. “Oh, yeah, not so much fun then. Sorry.” Contrite, he slipped off Louis’ desk and moved to his own chair.

Taking pity on his partner, Louis asked, “Why exactly did you think I was staying?”

“I don’t know. I guess you guys seemed to– I mean you kind of– you know.” Liam waved his hand.

“We kind of what? Li, what the hell are you on about?”

“I thought you were into him. You spent most of the day talking to him. Zay–“ Liam broke off with a blush.

Louis smirked knowingly. “Ahhh, so, he’s decided that your partner needs a man, is that it?”

“NO! Well, not really.” Liam fidgeted with the papers on his desk. “We thought we saw something between you and Harry, that’s all.”

“He’s a good guy, who’s just been through a horrific fucking experience and needed someone who understands that, to talk to. The main thing he wanted was for me to talk to Jamie, which I did, and he wanted to know why it all happened, which I told him. Saturday was probably the last time I’ll see him, unless I buy a ticket to one of his shows.”

Liam worried his bottom lip with his teeth for a moment before venturing, “But would you like to see him again?”

Louis rolled his eyes and sighed. “Li–“

“I know, I know.” Liam put his head down and began to wade through his own paperfwork. “But for the record, I think you guys would be great together”

“Liam!”

“Just saying, you’re single, he’s single.”

“So what, I’m so pathetic that the only requirement I have in a man is that he be single?” Louis covered his heart. 

It was Liam’s turn to roll his eyes. “Fuck off, you know what I mean.”

“Rarely.” Louis rearranged a few things on his desk. “Look, Harry’s a great guy. He’s funny and smart and good company.”

“But–“

“But, nothing. He was part of a case. I doubt he’ll want any more reminders of what happened than he already has.”

“He had a party and invited all of us.”

“He has very nice manners and it was his way of saying thank you. That’s all.”

“You brought his child home safely.”

“We. Yes, I know, and that is where our connection ends. Like I said, I doubt I’ll ever even see him again, so please, can we drop it?” 

“Sure whatever you say, Lou.” Liam smirked, looking over Louis shoulder

Louis turned to see what he was looking at to see the desk Sergeant lead someone into the bullpen. He got to his feet immediately. “Mister Cowell.”

“DI Tomlinson.” Cowell shook his hand. “It’s good to see you again.” 

“You too, Sir.” Louis grabbed a chair from a neighbouring desk. “Have a seat, please. Can I get you anything, we have terrible coffee or perfect tea.”

Cowell laughed. “I’ll take a cup of your perfect tea, then. Strong, one sugar.”

Louis opened the bottom drawer of his desk and grabbed a couple of tea bags and set about brewing a pot. “Is there something I can help you with, Sir?”

“First, you can stop calling me sir.”

Louis nodded.

“Second, there is something I was hoping you could help me with..”

“I can try. What do you need?” Louis left the tea to steep and sat across from the music mogul .

“Harry is going to do an interview addressing everything that has happened over the last two weeks.”

“He mentioned it, yes.” Louis’ jaw tightened. “He wasn’t much looking forward to it.”

Simon’s eyebrows climbed his forehead. “Really? He spoke to you about it?”

“Yeah, the other night.” Louis nodded. “He was worried about who he was going to have to talk to and whether anything he said would actually get printed.” He fidgeted with his pen. “So, what do you need from me?”

“You’re a bit protective of him?” Cowell suggested.

Louis lifted his chin defensively. “Protecting is in me job description. I take it very seriously.”

“Of course you do.” Cowell searched his face clearly looking for something. “Good.”

Louis couldn’t help but find his stare unnerving. “What can I do for you, Mister Cowell?”

“I’d like you to be part of the interview.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I would like you to take part in the interview Harry is going to do to discuss the details of the crime and how you managed to bring Jamie home.” 

“You should really be speaking to our media department–“ 

Cowell was shaking his head before Louis even finished. “I don’t want some spokesman, I want you.”

“Sir–“

“Look, Louis, may I call you Louis?” On Louis’ nod he continued. “I think is important that it’s you because you and your team are the ones who brought Jamie back to us, but also because you seem to have a real rapport with Harry and Jamie.”

Louis got up to fetch their tea. “I like them both, they’re a lovely family.” He set Cowell’s cup in front of him and retook his seat. “But there are reasons we have people who deal with the media, and there are even better reasons why I’m not one of them.”

Cowell chuckled. “All the better to have someone who isn’t afraid to be forthright.” Cowell raised a brow at Liam’s snort. 

Liam just shook his head. “Don’t mind me, just. . . “ he waved his hand with a smirk at Louis.

Simon turned back to Louis. “First and foremost, I want someone with Harry who he feels comfortable with.”

“But–“ Louis scrubbed his hand over his face. “What exactly is it you want? I can give a few words to whatever reporter is going to write the story, but–“

“He’s doing a televised sit down.”

Louis shot Liam an evil look as the other man choked on his tea. “You’ll have to excuse my partner. But he’s not wrong. I tend to be a bit, erm, blunt for most people’s comfort.”

“Do you really think I have a problem with someone being blunt?” Cowell was clearly amused by the very idea.

“Mister–“

“Look, I want someone from the police there so Harry doesn’t have to talk about the details of the crime or investigation. I want it to be you in particular because Harry seems to be comfortable with you and I am trying to make this whole fucking nightmare as easy for him as I possibly can.” 

Louis’ blew out a frustrated breath, he knew when he was beat. “I’d have to clear–“

“I already spoke to DCS Winston, you’re cleared.”

“You already–, never mind.” Louis glared at Liam, his partner was head down over his desk but Louis could still see the smirk on his face. “How are we doing this.”

“Thursday evening, Nick Grimshaw is doing the interview.”

“From Radio 1?”

Cowell nodded.

“Aren’t he and Harry close?” Louis studied the older man’s face. “All part of making it as easy as it can be?”

“Nick is a friend. He’s been there through all of it, so he’ll ask the important questions and not get bogged down by the trivial.”

Louis snorted. “You mean he’s not going to look to lay blame for Harry being stuffed in the closet to maximise his earning potential?”

Cowell let the shot slide right over him. “I think there is more than enough blame to go around. No one’s hands are clean here.”

“Except Harry’s”

Cowell tilted his head in concession.

“So you’re going to let him tell the truth?” Louis asked skeptically.

“After a fashion.” Cowell rolled his shoulders. “Look, I care about Harry, not just as a source of income, but he and Jamie are like family to me. What was done in the name of business is in a lot of ways sickening. But he wanted a career.”

“And the only way for a talented, bright, gorgeous, kid to have a career is to stick him deep in the closet?” Louis asked incredulously.

“Here, we might have been able to make it happen to a degree. Never as big as he is, and we never would have launched him in America the way he has, if they knew he was gay.”

“But–“

“Things have changed a lot in a very short time. Today, we might be able to do it. But seven years ago. . .? No, the label wouldn’t have made the investment. As I said, we live in a different world now, we still have a long way to go, yes, but compared to then. . . , You know that as well as anyone.” 

Louis blinked in surprise. “You’ve looked into me?”

“Of course.” Cowell admitted. 

Louis just stared at him for a moment, not sure what to make of that. “And this is what he’s going to say in the interview?”

“It will be addressed as something that couldn’t be helped given the time and place involved.”

“So you’re going to end up blameless in all this?” Louis sneered, earning him a warning look from Liam which he ignored completely.

“No, we won’t. No matter what Harry says, everyone is going to know where to lay the blame.”

“Good.” Louis glanced over at Liam to find his partner watching him with a soft smile on his face. “I’ll do it.”

After getting all the information about the where’s and when’s of the interview, Louis walked Simon to the door and said his good-byes. When he returned to the bullpen he found Liam once again perched on his desk, a particularly smug grin on his face. “Fuck off.”

Liam lifted his hands, his grin not slipping a millimetre. “Hey, I didn’t say anything!”

Louis gave him a shove that had Liam tumbling off the desk. Liam righted himself and the smirk returned. “I will definitely need a date and time, though so I can set my Sky box. This is one interview I do not want to miss!” Louis’ quelling glare had no effect, Liam picked up his phone. “I have to tell Zayn!”

Lois dropped his forehead to his desk and contemplated how much damage he could do if he flung himself out the ground floor window next to his desk.

 

“My best friend is going to be a STAHHHHHH!” Cara sang as she danced through Louis’ door the next evening. 

Louis seriously considered leaving through that same door but just closed it instead. “Liam?”

Cara looked up from where she was tickling Sandy. “Nope, Zayn.” She grinned. “And Glenne, and Eleanor, and Jonny.” She ticked them off on her fingers then glared at him. “Notice your name is not on that list?”

Louis sat on his sofa, tipped his head back and closed his eyes. “I need new friends.”

Cara dropped down beside him and threw her legs over his lap. “You haven’t been able to shed me in the last twenty-two years. What makes you think you can ditch me now that you’re finally interesting.”

Louis didn’t even open his eyes. “New friends. I’m a nice guy, people like me, I’m funny, good company, smart, and I always look good. It shouldn’t be all that hard, really.”

Cara poked his thigh with her toe. “Pfft. You wouldn’t know what to do without us.” She snuggled closer and wrapped her arms around his middle. “Soooooo. . .?”

“What?”

“What?” She jabbed him hard in the side. “You’re going on the telly, sitting next to Harry Styles, being interviewed by Nick fucking Grimshaw!”

Louis pressed his thumbs into his closed eyes. “I’m going to be discussing the details of a murder and kidnap investigation, not announcing new tour dates.”

“You used to be fun.” Cara pouted.

Louis opened one eye to glare at her. “You really don’t see the potential disaster in this whole situation?”

Cara grinned merrily. “That’s the best part!”

“Maybe if I joined a gym, or another football league, that’d be a good way to meet new people.” Louis shoved her legs off and went to the fridge. He grabbed a beer and a few grapes. He took a deep drink of the beer and fed the grapes to Sandy and Danny. “You two still love me don’t you.” The little birds bobbed up and down happily, begging for their favourite treat.

“Ahhh, Boobear, you know I love you.” Cara came up behind him. “But it’s exciting!” She reached around him and nabbed his beer. “Everyone is going to want to watch this interview!”

Louis stomach lurched violently. “Carebear, you know I love you, but you’re making it so much worse.”

Cara turned him to face her and handed him back his beer. “You, are a great cop, one of the best in this whole fucking city. You brought that little girl home safe to her family.”

“David–“

“You were the one who made that kid trust you enough that he could do what he did. Rodgers couldn’t even be bothered to tell him his girlfriend had been murdered, and you guys were the ones who acted on his information and got Jamie out of there without anyone else getting hurt.” 

“We were doing our jobs.” Louis protested weakly.

“Yeah, you were, a job that includes returning six-year-old little girls to their father’s.” Cara hugged him tight. “So now you get to go on the telly and talk about what awesome cops you guys are.” She stepped back to get a look at his face. “What the hell is this? Since when are you all. . .” She waved her hand at him. “You love to talk about what bad-asses you and your team are.”

‘It’s going to be on television!” 

“So you can tell the whole country your team is amazing.”

“Oh, God!”

“Louis!” Cara grabbed him by the shoulders. “What the fuck?”

“It’s television, Care, you know how I can get if someone pisses me off!”

Cara led him back to the sofa and pushed him into his seat before climbing into his lap. “You’re going to tell them the details of the crime and investigation like you said. You won’t be the one getting grilled.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Cara studied him carefully. “Oh!” Her hand covered her mouth. “Oh.”

“Do you remember when I came out? The looks and whispers at school? All the crap Kenny Broderick and his pet dicks put me through, what they did to the house, the phone calls me mum got? Do you remember me crying and shaking in your bed? Getting the crap kicked out of me?” Louis swallowed hard. “Imagine having to go through that with the entire world watching.”

“That was a long time ago, love. Over ten years.” Cara soothed. “Things are a bit different now. Plus Grimshaw is one of Harry’s closest friends.”

“Yes, all the more reason he has to ask the tough questions.”

“I don’t follow.”

“If he doesn’t ask the tough question everyone will scream from the rooftops and start making up their own truths.” Louis buried his face in his best friend’s hair. “They asked Grimshaw to do it so the awful questions would at least be coming from someone who had no malice toward Harry.”

“Oh.” Cara stroked his hair. “I never really thought about it that way.”

“Yeah.”

“Can I ask you a question, honey?”

“Hmm?”

“Why are you so protective of Harry? Did something happen that I don’t know about?”

Louis lifted his head. “Happen? What– No, no, that’s not it.”

“Then what, I don’t understand why does this bother you so much?”

“I’m just afraid he’s going to ask something that sets me off and I’ll say something I’ll regret.”

 

***********

“His child was kidnapped, missing for four days, an employee who was like family to them was murdered and all anyone wants to ask him about is his fake girlfriends. How does that make any sense? How is that in any way fair to someone who is still grieving? Still dealing with the fact that someone broke into his home and stole his little girl? Still worried about the long term effects on his child? But by all means let’s talk about the fake relationships he was forced to have, if he wanted to have a chance at a career and how much he lied to his fans!” Louis took a deep breath before taking sip of his water. He looked over the edge of his cup at Nick Grimshaw, he was surprised to see respect in the other man’s eyes.

“Okay, well, on that note I think we’ll take a break.” Grimshaw held up his hand before addressing Louis who was refusing to look at anyone. “Well, aren’t you just. . . ”

Louis closed his eyes and counted to five, this was not good. He opened them to see Grimshaw grinning like they just announced a second Christmas and Harry staring at him wide eyed with wonder. “It’s not like I didn’t warn them.” He joked weakly.

“Well I, for one, say bless whoever it was decided to put you in that seat.” Nick waved an intern over to refill Louis’ now empty cup.

“Nick . . .” Harry started.

“No! No, it needed to be said.” Nick argued. “One of the reasons I didn’t want to do this was because that’s exactly how I feel about it and you know it. The fact that I have to ask you about that ridiculous bullshit with Devon Quick instead of how Jamie is handling all this, is insane!”

“Then say it.”

Harry and Nick both turned back to look at Louis. “I–“ Nick cocked his head slightly and met Louis’ eyes steadily. “There really isn’t any reason I can’t do just a wee bit of editorialising, is there?”

Louis shook his head. “Maybe not go off like I did, but a few, erm, pointed questions might not hurt.”

“Louis–“

“No. Harry, he’s right. This could actually be great.” Nick shot a look over to the side of the room where Harry’s team were sitting. “Not sure what your keepers are going to think. . .”

Harry glanced that way, then turned back to Nick and Louis. “Fuck em. They’re the ones who pushed so hard for a televised interview and to have Louis here.” His smile turned nasty. “They wanted me to talk, let’s talk.”

 

The next morning every newspaper and tabloid in the country carried the story. The headlines ranged from _**The Ugly Truth About Homophobia in the Music Industry**_ to _**Harry Styles’ New Cop Lover!**_ and pretty much everything in between.

Louis’ personal thundercloud should have been enough to keep everyone at a distance, but sadly, cops are a brave lot. “Soooooo. . .” Jonny sidled up to his desk not long after start of shift.

Louis just lifted one eyebrow at him.

Jonny wasn’t fazed. “You gonna apply for a position in the media department?”

“I’m gonna stick my foot up your–“

“TOMLINSON!” Louis and Jonny both winced at the sound of Ben Winston’s voice.

“Well, my day’s off to a roaring fucking start.” Louis grumbled as he pulled on his jacket. Jonny patted him on the shoulder as he passed him on the way to their bosses office.

Louis tapped on the frame of the door. “Hey, Ben.”

“Sit.” 

Louis sat. “Ben–“ 

Winston dropped heavily into his own chair. “To be honest I can’t really even be pissed with you, it’s not like you didn’t warn us.”

“Ben, I–“

“No, Louis, it’s okay.” Ben scrubbed his hand over his face. “I knew who I was sending in there.”

“For what it’s worth, I am sorry.” Louis hesitated. “Mostly.”

Winston barked out a laugh. “Yeah, you were never my pick as a media rep, but no one asked me.”

Louis’ head came up. “Cowell told me–“

Ben held up a hand. “I was told. He went over my head, way over. Apparently he dines with Hogan-Howe.”

Louis’ eyebrows shot up, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe was Commissioner of Police. “Yeah, I’d say that’s over your head.” He was instantly contrite. “Jesus, Ben, I’m really sorry, I hope this doesn’t blowback on you.”

“Not likely. I warned them you were inclined to speak your mind and that you may not hold your tongue if someone said something objectionable.”

Louis winced, it wasn’t every day you boss had to warn people about you big mouth. “I really did try, boss.”

“I know. I also know that it wasn’t fair to put you in that position.”

“Ben. . . “

“No, Louis, I should have fought them harder on this. You didn’t want to do it. You knew you would probably get mad and say something.” Winston propped his elbows on his desk. “And now the tabs have hold of you–“

“I learned not to give a fuck what assholes think of me a long time ago.”

“They’re going to make pests of themselves for a while, especially if they find out you’re gay.”

Louis chuckled. Ben was a great boss and a brilliant cop, but he had missed this one. “They wanted me there with him _because_ I’m gay.”

Ben’s eyes shot up to meet Louis’. “Excuse me?”

“Cowell, kinda alluded to it when he came here. He never outright said anything, but he had me looked at and knows I’m gay, so I think they wanted me because they knew I would empathise with Harry and his situation. They didn’t want a cop who just sat there and gave the facts. They wanted someone invested.”

“Which is why the didn’t want a media rep.”

“Yeah.”

“They’re going to keep digging.”

“Yeah, for a bit, they’ll get bored when they realise the most exciting thing I do is buy bird seed.”

Winston laughed. “Yeah, well, just make sure to keep an eye out. We don’t want some stray paparazzi screwing up a case trying to get a shot of Harry Styles’ new squeeze.”

“Jesus, Ben.” Louis groaned.

Winston waved at the door. “Get out of my office.”

When Louis go back to his desk Liam had arrived and was looking far too pleased with himself and the stack of newspapers on his desk. Before he could say anything though, Louis growled. “One word from you and Zayn finds out about the Jamison case. Including pictures.”

“Anyone ever tell you you’re no fun?” Liam grumped.

“No.”

 

“Hey, Mum.” His phone rang just as he was entering his flat. Louis had known this call was coming, and had seriously debated not answering.

“Is there something you need to tell me, Lou?” Jay Deakin teased.

“Muuum!”

“I’m going to assume the story in The Guardian was closer to the truth than the one in The Sun?”

“Always a fairly safe assumption.”

“Louis?”

“Mum.”

Louis listened to his mother breath for a few moments before he broke. “Fine, what do you want to know?”

“I just want to make sure my baby boy is okay.”

“I’m fine, mum.” 

“You looked very handsome.”

Louis rolled his eyes as he shucked his jacket and tie. “Thank you, Mum.”

“That Grimshaw fellow seems very clever, he asked some good question, and handled the situation very well. He was much kinder than I expected.”

“Mhmm.” Louis opened the cage and let Danny and Sandy out. The little birds hopped onto his shoulder and rode him into the kitchen to get a snack. “He’s a friend of Harry’s so that helped.”

“I was surprised at how well that young man handled everything. He seems absolutely lovely.”

“Nick? Not sure I’d use lovely, but yeah, he was cool.” 

“No, no, I meant Harry Styles. After everything he’s been through these last couple of weeks I was quite surprised at how gracious he was. And funny. Very charming too.”

Louis sighed and dished out some fresh fruit for the birds. “Yes, mum, Harry’s handled it all very well.”

“And so incredibly good looking.”

Louis wasn’t shocked at his mother’s lack of subtlety, his apple didn’t fall far from her tree, after all. “Mother.”

“Yes, love?”

“Stop.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Mum.”

“But he’s just so lovely, and that adorable little girl. . .”

“He’s a nice guy and Jamie is adorable. But–“

“Are you going to tell me you aren’t attracted to him?”

“Mum, it was a case, he was a victim.”

“So? All you ever do is work. You say you won’t date another cop, who else are you going to meet?”

“I do things other than work.” Louis protested weakly.

“Really? Every time I call, you’re either just getting home from work, working on a case from home, or heading out on a case.” Johanna argued.

“I go to the pub.”

“With your friends from work, all cops, or Cara.”

“I went to a barbeque and pool party just this past weekend!” Louis realised his stumble as soon as the words were out.

“Oh, really? One of your co-workers? Where there any new people there?” 

“Uh, well, mostly it was just people from work.”

“Oh, I didn’t realise any of them had a place with a pool.”

“Um, well, you know, it wasn’t exactly– uh.”

“Boobear?”

“Yeah, mum?”

“Who had the party?”

Louis made a face at Sandy who had crawled around to snuggle into his shirt pocket. “It was Harry. BUT, it was only to say thank you, and it was really Jamie who wanted us all there.”

“Of course it was, baby.” Jay sounded far too smug for Louis’ peace of mind. “Did you have fun?”

“Yes, mother.”

“Did you spend any time with Harry?”

“Of course I did, it was his party.”

“So you only spoke to him as your host?”

“Well, no.”

“Hmm. Well, I should let you go.”

“Mum. . .”

“Bye, Baby, love you!”

Louis just stared at his phone. “It really shouldn’t surprise me, she’s been doing this since I was sixteen.” He muttered to Sandy as he grabbed a beer and settled on the sofa with a few files.

An hour later he was making good progress with his paperwork when his phone rang. “Payno!”

“Hey, Tommo, what’s up?”

“I, am being a good little boy and catching up on my paperwork.”

Liam chuckled. “You wanna play hooky and grab a beer?”

“I really do, very much.” 

“Me and the lads.” Louis hear a loud ‘Oi!’ from somewhere near Liam. “And the ladies are gonna head to Mulcar’s, you in?”

“Yes.” Louis threw the file he was holding onto the table and got to his feet. 

“See you in about an hour.”

 

Louis was putting the finishing touches on his hair when the phone rang again, this time the number wasn’t one he recognised. “Tomlinson.”

“Hi, Louis, it’s Harry um, Harry Styles. 

“Harry, uh hey, is there something wrong? Is Jamie okay?” Louis couldn’t think of a reason the singer would be calling him.

“No, no everything is great, Jamie’s doing fine. We have a few more paps parked on our doorstep than I would like, but we’re doing a lot better than I expected. In fact, Jamie is having a girl’s night with Lou and Lux. Lou wanted to do their hair and nails but I think Jamie and Lux were planning on playing football.”

“I’m really happy to hear that she’s doing so well.” Louis rummaged through the pockets of his discarded suits trousers looking for his wallet. “How’s her dad holding up?”

“I’m. . . Okay, not great but I’m getting there. I figure it was a big step letting her stay with Lou and Lux, it was a bit of a battle, she wanted to go, I wasn’t quite ready to let her out of my sight.”

“Perfectly understandable. She likely doesn’t have as complete an understanding of what happened as you do.”

Harry chuckled. “It’s funny, I can tell when you switch from just Louis to DI Tomlinson.”

“I’m sorry?”

“The way you talk, when you’re on the job, t’s different, your accent even changes slightly.”

“It doesn’t?”

“It really does. DI Tomlinson is much more formal that Louis.”

“Huh, I– no one has ever–, that’s weird, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know, I think it makes sense. You need people to take you more seriously when you’re on the job.”

“I guess.” Louis finally found his wallet in his suit jacket and stuffed it into the pocket of the jeans he had donned for the evening. He waited for Harry to get to the point of the phone call.

“Look, I uh, well I didn’t call to talk about the way you speak.”

“Yeah, I figured. Is there something you need?”

“No, no that’s not it, it’s just with Jamie gone, and I um, I was wondering what you’re doing this evening. I know it’s kind of late and last minute but um, you said you don’t really party much, but Niall and I were going to grab a drink and thought maybe you’d like to join us?” 

Louis froze. The inclusion of Niall meant Harry wasn’t actually asking him on a date, but just the thought that one of the most beautiful men in the world (it’s true, People magazine said so) wanted to have a drink with him. “Uh, I’d love to. But I– hey– “ He stopped and thought about what he was about to do. “I’m meeting Liam and the rest of them at our favourite pub, why don’t you guys join us?”

“I–“ Harry hesitated for a moment. “That’d actually be great. Erm, what about my security?”

Louis couldn’t help thinking Harry’s security guard would likely feel more at home in the cop bar than Harry. “Mulgar’s is small and pretty much everyone in there will be a cop or connected to a cop, so security isn’t an issue, and there’s a back entrance you can use too.”

“Great, that’ll make Dale happy.”

Louis gave Harry the address for the pub and agreed to meet him in the alley in back of the bar in half an hour. Louis tucked the birds back in their cage with a quick, “goodnight my little loves.” And headed out the door.

 

“TOMMO!” A cheer greeted Louis as he entered the crowded pub. He was pleased to see that almost every face in the bar was familiar. 

“MY MINIONS!” He spread his arms and swanned over to where his team and their various companions were seated. “Ladies, you are looking lovely this evening.” He kissed Glenne on the cheek as he settled into the seat next to her and smirked at the men. “Gentlemen, you are not.” He grinned as Liam tossed a napkin at him. He leaned in to speak to Liam. “Harry and Niall, and I assume Dale are joining us.”

Liam’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? How did that happen? Did he call you and ask you out? Please tell me you didn’t put him off because you had plans with us, you know if you had a date we would–“ Liam stopped abruptly when Louis reached out and twisted his nipple. He batted Louis hand away with a squeak. “What’d I do?” He rubbed his chest with a glare at his partner.

“Stop playing matchmaker. He and Niall were going out and he called to see if I wanted to join–“

“He did ask you out!” Liam bounced in his seat drawing the attention of the others at their table.

Louis rolled his eyes. “Can you just– he was being nice, a friend, it wasn’t a date.”

“Of course.”

“Li–“

“What? I didn’t say anything.”

Louis glared at his partner. “Kiss my–“ He was interrupted by his phone indicating he had a text. “That’s him. Shut up.”

Liam just raised one brow and smirked. 

 

“Louis!” Niall cheered as the detective exited the back door of the pub. “Good to see ya, mate.”

“You too.” He shook his hand. “You find us alright?”

“Yeah, Dale can find near anything, he’s got like a built in GPS.” Niall clapped the tall security guard on the back. “Right, mate?”

Dale just shook his head and shook Louis’ hand. “There anyone in there who might be an issue?”

“Nah, don’t think there’s anyone under twenty-five, and I know most everyone in there, so if I ask them to keep it quiet, they will.”

“Thanks, man.”

“He worries.”

Louis turned to see Harry coming around the side of the Range Rover. “Isn’t that kind of his job?” He turned back to Dale. “What’s your title, worrier-in-chief?”

Dale snorted and moved to the door.

“He’d probably say babysitter-in-chief, actually.” Harry leaned in to whisper in Louis ear.

Louis shivered at the sensation of taller man’s warm breath on his skin. He had to clear his throat twice before he could speak. “So you’re saying you’re naughty?” 

Harry’s delighted laughter echoed in the deserted alley. “No one ever had fun being good all the time.” He winked cheekily and followed Niall and Dale into the noisy pub.

Louis took a moment to collect himself, there was not a single doubt in his mind that Harry had been flirting with him, and had responded happily when Louis flirted back. It had been a while since Louis had flirted with a fit guy, and god knows Harry was about as fit as they came. Nothing would come of it, but flirting is fun, right? Louis was dragged from his musing by the sound of the door re-opening.

“Louis, mate, you gonna stand out here all night?” Niall blonde hair glowed in the dim light in the alley.

“No, I uh.” Louis shook his head. “Just thinking about a case. I’m right behind you.”

“Yo, Tommo! Grab me another beer while you’re up!” Stan hollered from the table as Louis entered the pub behind Niall.

Louis made his way to the bar and was waiting to get the bartender’s attention when he felt someone step up close behind him. “Let me get this round.”

Louis turned his head to look up at Harry. “You don’t have to do that.”

“Look, if I thought I could get away with it, I’d buy everyone at that table a fucking house, okay? But I know a couple of rounds is going to have to do.” Harry green eyes glowed in the dim light of the pub.

Louis knew a losing argument when he saw one. “Yeah, I get it.” He signalled the bartender. “Hey, Katie, can we get a round for the table?’

Katie moved down the bar to where they were standing. “Sure, Lou, who’s tab–“ She came to a sudden halt when she saw who was standing at Louis’ shoulder.

Louis smirked at the normally cool headed brunette. Katie Larkin’s father was an ex-cop who opened the pub when she was just a little girl. She had begun working in the pub when she was in her early teens. She had taken over when he had retired and now she ran the place. She dealt with drunk cops and their friends on a daily basis without even raising her voice. She was smart and strong and Louis considered her a friend. She generally met flirting with polite disinterest and here she was blushing like a schoolgirl at Harry Styles. “Katie Larkin, I’d like you to meet, Harry Styles, Harry this is Katie the proprietress of this grand establishment.”

Harry leaned over Louis’ shoulder to shake Katie’s hand. “You have a great place, very comfortable, I really like it.” He complimented sincerely, flashing a bright smile that had Katie’s cheek turning brighter pink and Louis had to bite his tongue to keep from teasing her. “If you could put the next couple of rounds on my card, that would be lovely.” Harry handed her his credit card.

Louis had to work very hard not to react to Harry’s body being pressed against his back a couple of slow deep breaths helped him keep his cool.

Katie just nodded not taking her eyes off Harry, then she visibly shook herself, shot a smirking Louis a dirty look and moved off to make the drinks. Louis followed Harry back to the table and took his seat before he started to laugh. “You do that to everyone you meet?”

Harry just blinked at him, his brow furrowed. “I’m sorry?”

Liam leaned in. “What happened?”

“Harry here, just made Katie blush and he rendered her properly speechless.”

Liam’s eyes widened. “Our Katie?”

“Yup.”

“Nah.”

“Yes. She was blushing and didn’t manage to get a single word out.”

“But Katie’s unflappable.”

Louis waggled his brows. “Well, not tonight, Harry _flapped_ her good.”

Harry just shook his head and said archly. “She has to deal with you lot every day, maybe she just liked seeing a better class of clientele.” He managed to hold the look for about five seconds before bursting into laughter.

“Nah, it was your dimples, love.” Katie said from behind them, tray filled with drinks balanced on one hand the other on her hip. She shifted the tray and began delivering their drinks. “I was all of sixteen when I frantically voted for you when you were on the X-Factor, so forgive me if I’m a wee bit star struck.”

Harry smiled brightly at her. “Well then, thank you very much Katie Larkin!”

Katie managed to keep her cool even as her cheek once more flamed pink. She finished serving their drinks before turning back to face Harry. “I was so happy to see your little girl got home safe, we were all praying for you.”

Harry stood and hugged the now bright red girl. “And I thank you for that even more.” 

Katie smiled softly before heading back to the bar. 

“You’re very good with people, aren’t you?” Louis asked as Harry returned to his seat.

Harry shrugged one shoulder. “I like people.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

“Nothing complicated about being nice to people.”

“I–“ Louis thought about what he said. “Yeah, I guess there isn’t.”

“Besides, you’re nice to people.”

Louis sighed deeply when Liam sprayed beer all over the table and started to laugh. “Hey!”

“Aw, c’mon, Lou.” Liam rubbed the back of his head where Louis had clipped him. “All you did was prove me right.”

“Nah.” Harry disagreed with a grin. “I have no trouble giving Niall what for when he gets out of line.” He ducked as Niall lobbed a peanut across the table at him. “OI!”

“Me getting out of line? You say I’m the one who gets out of line, Hah!” Niall leaned across the table to interrupt Dale where he was flirting with Eleanor. “Hey, Dalio, who’s a bigger pain in the ass, me or H?”

Dale looked at Niall, then at the attractive brunette at his left then back to Niall. “You.”

Niall sat back in his chair with a pout as Harry chuckled. “Yeah, pretty sure it wasn’t me who decided it was a good idea to go outside the hotel after the VMAs.” He glared at Dale. “Without security.”

“They’d been waiting for hours!” Harry protested. “They were the reason I had such a great night!”

Now everyone was laughing. “So you admit you’re a security nightmare?” Louis teased.

“I admit no such thing.” 

Dale lifted his hand. “I’ll admit it.”

“But you just said Niall was a bigger pain in the ass!”

“I did. Doesn’t mean you’re not the reason for this.” Dale smirked and pointed to his head, which set everyone but Harry off again. 

“Heeey!” Harry pouted.

“You’re the single biggest threat to your own security and don’t pretend you don’t know it.” Dale argued.

Harry grinned and shrugged. “I like to meet people. I’m a people person.”

Dale rolled his eyes. “You’re a menace, is what you are.” He then turned all his attention back to Eleanor.

Harry shot an acid look around the table and sniffed. “You’re all mean.”

Louis watched them all tease back and forth and marvelled at how easily Harry and Niall integrated with his friends, it was not something he would have expected. He would have thought Harry’s idea of a night out would have included some shmancy restaurant and drinking expensive cocktails in the VIP section of some exclusive club, not pints down the pub with a table full of cops.

“Hey, were’d you go?”

Louis jumped when he felt Harry’s deep voice so close. “Hmm, sorry?”

Harry smiled, but didn’t move out of Louis’ personal space, instead he draped his arm across the back of Louis’ chair. “You seemed to leave us for a bit.” He kept his voice low enough that Louis had to lean in a bit to hear him over the noise of the bar.

“Just thinking.” Louis could feel the heat rising in his face at Harry proximity.

“About anything in particular?”

“Just that I never thought I’d be drinking beer with one of the biggest stars on the planet.” 

Harry’s smile drooped and he pulled back. “Is that how you think of me?’

“No, no that’s not what I meant.” Louis hurriedly reassured. “It’s not so much you, I guess– I don’t know, maybe I had the wrong idea about someone like you would like to spend their time.”

Harry shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve had to do the whole– scene, mostly it’s boring because it’s usually about who I’m seen with and I hardly know anyone there. I try to make sure at least one of my actual friends will be there so it’s not too bad. It was a novelty at first and I thought it was cool but then I realised it’s mostly about the paps outside, not the party inside. This more my idea of a good time.” He leaned back in. “The company is certainly better.”

“You like cops better than movies stars and models?’ 

“Well, I guess that would depend on the cop, wouldn’t it?” He moved slightly closer and lowered his voice further. “And how do you feel about hanging about with pop-stars?”

“Well, I guess it would depend on the pop-star, wouldn’t it?’

Harry barked out a laugh and covered his mouth with a blush. “So you have more than one to chose from?”

Louis tilted his head coyly. “You don’t know, I may have a whole squad of pop-stars just waiting to hang with me.”

“You’re right. Anything is possible, I wouldn’t mind finding out though.” Harry angled his body so he was turned almost fully to Louis, with his back to the others. “What are you doing tomorrow?”


	6. S.A.T.U.R.D.A.Y. Night!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As first dates go, it wasn't all bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive thank you to my beta/Britpickers the wonderful
> 
> [Lou](http://wariormum.tumblr.com), [Sheena](http://conscious--ramblings.tumblr.com) and Sam

S.A.T.U.R.D.A.Y. Night!

Louis was brought up short by the invitation. “I– uh.” He swallowed hard. “Harry– I– um, I’m not–“ 

Harry sat back. “Oh, I thought– never mind, I just– no, no worries I just thought you might like to catch a game, I didn’t mean–“ He stopped when Louis held up his hand. 

“It’s okay. You’re not wrong.” Louis reassured. “I’m just, it’s kind of– um, you’re just–“ 

Harry arched one amused brow and let Louis ramble for a minute. “A friend of mine invited me to join him in his suite at the Chelsea game tomorrow.” 

Louis opened and closed his mouth three times before he could form words. “They play ManU tomorrow.” 

“Indeed they do.” 

“I’m a huge ManU fan.” 

“You told me.” 

“I haven’t been to a game in ages.” 

“You told me that too.” 

“I’ve never watched from a suite.” 

“It’s– sweet.” Harry smirked. “So. . .? 

“I uh–“ 

“Jamie will be there too if it makes you feel better. If you think we need a chaperone.” 

Louis wrinkled his nose . “No, I don’t think we need a chaperone.” 

“Well.” Harry leaned back in. “You know you want to see the game.” 

Louis swallowed. Harry was once again close enough that he could feel the soft puffs of his breath on his cheek. “It has been a long time.” 

Harry’s full mouth twisted into a playful smirk. “Well, then, there’s really no need to wait any longer.” His eyes dropped to Louis’ lips. “Is there.” 

Louis’ throat snapped shut. What little air he could draw in felt like it was burning his lungs. He couldn’t remember a time when he had reacted this strongly to someone. He took a carefully measured breath, not wanting to let Harry see just how affected he was by him. “I’ve never really been one for–“ He hesitated, then said huskily. “Delayed gratification.” 

Harry’ face lit up with delight as he barked out a loud laugh and sat back. “Is that a yes, then?” 

“Yeah, I think I’d like that.” 

Harry raised his glass. “Perfect.” 

  

The next morning Louis woke up to a headache and a very dry mouth. He dragged himself out of bed, once again cursing himself for not listening to his mother when his feet hit the cold floor. “Should ‘ave bought the damn rug.” He shuffled to the loo then headed out to say good morning to his little feathered roommates. “Good-morning me little loves!” He changed their food and water while they chattered happily in his ear from their perch on his shoulder. “I have a feeling Uncle Liam has his knickers in a twist about something.” He lifted his phone. “Seventeen text messages.” He grabbed a bottle of water before putting the kettle on. “And look at all the kissyface emojis, isn’t he just the cleverest.” 

Louis stopped scrolling when he got to a text from Harry. “Well, Sandy, what do you think I should do now?” The little bird rubbed her head against his chin. “Yeah, I don’t know either.” The text was Harry confirming their plans for the game and letting Louis know what time he would pick him up and that they would be grabbing some food beforehand. Louis sent back a thumbs up emoji and turned his phone back off. He finished getting his tea ready and decided to put off thinking until after his shower. 

He was glaring into his foggy bathroom mirror trying to decide whether to shave when he heard the door to his flat open. 

“LEWIS!” 

Louis rolled his eyes at Sandy who was playing in a dish of water beside the sink. “Your Uncle Liam is a big fat fink.” He took a steeling breath and called out, “I’m in the loo, Care, gimme a mo.” He decided against the shave and pulled on a pair of trackies and a t-shirt. He left the bathroom and found Cara with her head in his refrigerator. “May I help you?” 

“Your fridge looks like it belongs to a Uni student.” 

“Care-bear?” 

Cara straightened and turned to face him with a carton of cold take-away in her hand. “When?” 

“Night before last.” 

“Yum.” She grabbed a fork and headed for the sitting room. 

Louis popped the birds onto their cage and sat in the chair across from Cara and watched her inhale what was meant to be his lunch. “Are you enjoying that?” 

She just wrinkled her nose at him and grinned happily around a mouthful of curry. “So, a little birdie tells me you have a date.” 

“Your little birdie needs to keep his beak shut. And it’s not a date.” Louis got up and started tidying. It had been a very busy week and it showed in the state of his flat. “We’re catching a football game together.” 

“Oooh! A laddy date!” Cara grabbed the carton of food off the coffee table before Louis could tidy it away. “I’m not done.” 

Louis tugged a t-shirt out from underneath her and threw it in the basket with the other clothes and towels he had collected. “Yes, because Harry Styles and I are the laddiest guys you know.” He dumped the basket in the bedroom then headed for the broom closet. 

“Why not?” Cara lifted her feet so Louis could run the sweeper under them. “You went out drinking in the pub last night. You could be laddy lads.” 

Louis stopped what he was doing and stared at her. Cara managed to bat her eyelashes a couple of times before bursting into giggles. “Sorry, it’s just that you have two lovebirds as roommates.” 

“I wasn’t the one claiming ladhood.” Louis tossed her a spray bottle and a cloth. “If you’re going to eat my food and annoy me, at least be useful while you do it.” 

Cara stuck her tongue out at him but set to cleaning the table in front of the sofa. “But Za– er, my CI said that you two were flirting up a storm.” 

“Care–“ Louis sighed. 

“What?” She tossed the cloth on the table and stood with her hands on her hips. “I’m your best friend, I’m allowed to be nosy when you meet a new guy.” 

“It’s a football game.” 

“‘So flirty they barely spoke to anyone else!’” She quoted merrily. 

“Zayn has a big mouth.” Louis flopped into his chair. “C’mon, Care.” 

“What?” 

“It’s not a date.” Louis all but whined.

“Mhmm.” 

“Cara!” 

“LEWIS!” 

“I hate you.” 

Cara wiggled herself into the chair with him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You love me.” She brushed his damp hair away from his face and wrinkled her nose at him. “Would it be such a terrible thing if it was a date? I mean, he’s a really nice guy, he’s clever, and holy god he’s gorgeous.” She tilted her head until she was looking him right in the eye. “I’d say he’s almost good enough for you.” 

Louis squeezed her tight. “Love you too.” He tipped his forehead against hers. “And no, it wouldn’t be terrible if it was a date.” 

“See–“ 

“Hold up.” Louis interrupted before she could go off. “I just don’t want to push things right now. He’s coming out of an absolutely horrible experience, he likely just needs a friend.” 

“Pshhh. From what I heard there was some more than friendly, next level flirting going on last night.” 

“Hmmm. It was nice, he’s nice.” 

“But?” 

Louis shrugged lazily. “I don’t know. He’s Harry Styles.” 

“So, you’re Louis Tomlinson!” 

“God, I adore you.” Louis pressed a kiss to her cheek. “It’s not that I don’t think I’m good enough for the famous pop-star, love. It’s just there are a lot of complications that go along with being with someone like him.” 

“Pshhhh.” Cara repeated. “Find me a relationship worth having that doesn’t have complications? Yeah?” She untangled herself a bit so she could see Louis clearly. “You are clearly attracted to him and not just because he’s fucking gorgeous.” 

“Well, yes. He’s very– compelling. But–“ 

“No buts, why not just be open minded about it, see where things go. Spend a bit more time with him, flirt a little, play a little. If it leads to more, then go for it. If not, what’s the worst that happens, you get a new friend out of it all?” 

Louis drew her closer and cuddled in tight. “You’re right.”

“Again.” 

“I really think I could like him, Care.” 

“Then let yourself at least try.” 

  

In the end Louis decided to go with a clean shave, if only to make it look like he had made a bit of an effort, per Cara’s advice that he didn’t know who Harry’s suite owning friend was. With his luck, he’d show up dressed as usual for a game with his mates and he’d be sharing a suite with the Commissioner of Police. So, a clean shave, a button down and a neat pair of jeans were how Louis was dressed when Harry rang the buzzer to be let up. 

“Hi, Mister Louis!” Jamie lisped when he opened the door. 

“Hello there, Miss Styles.” He kneeled down to greet her. “What have we here? Did someone abscond with your front tooth?” He grabbed a note pad from the table. “Where did you last see the missing tooth.” 

“Nuh uh. No one stole it! It falled out last night.” She drew a coin out of her pocket. “See, the tooth fairy left me this!” 

“Well, then,” he closed the notebook. “Seems you’ve solved it for me. You’re going to put me out of work, you are.” 

Jamie giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight hug. “You’re funny.” 

Louis squeezed her back. “Thank you, lovely.” He stood to greet Harry who was leaning against the doorjamb with a grin on his face. “Hullo.” 

“Hello.” Louis took in the long lean body, dressed casually but expensively in a pair of tight black jeans and a flowing shirt covered in what looked like peacock feathers and black boots that likely cost what Louis made in a week 

They grinned at each other over top over Jamie’s head until she interrupted with a squeal. “Oh, Daddy look! Parrots!” She dashed over to the bird’s cage to coo at Danny and Sandy. “Aren’t you pretty birds! 

“You have lovebirds?” Harry asked with a quirked eyebrow. 

“You have a problem with that?” Louis asked over his shoulder as he joined Jamie at the tall cage. 

Harry held up his hands and shook his head. “Nope, no problem here.” 

“Can I pet them?” Jamie asked breathlessly. 

“Well,” Louis opened the cage and the bright little birds hopped out to take up their favourite spots on his shoulder. “Danny here is a bit shy of strangers, but my girl Sandy, she might sit on your hand.” He looked up at Harry. “If your dad says it’s okay?” 

Jamie bounced around to face her father. “Please, Daddy?” 

“You have to be very still and gentle and listen to Louis, okay?” 

She clapped her hands and did a little jig before approaching Louis who now had Sandy perched on his hand. “I’ll be very gentle.” She promised solemnly. 

“Okay, love.” Louis took her hand. “Now just hold your hand like mine and she’ll step over to you. Just hold your hand very still.” 

Jamie nodded, never taking her eyes off the pretty bird. Louis lowered his hand and nudged Sandy to transfer her to Jamie. Sandy looked back at Louis then up at Jamie before scrambling up her arm to duck under the dark curls on her shoulder. Jamie gasped and turned wide eyes on Louis. “Um, Mister Louis?” 

Louis carefully lifted the curls away to find Sandy happily nuzzling Jamie’s chin. “I think she likes you.” 

“Yeah?” Jamie appeared frozen, not wanting to disturb the happy little bird. 

“Yeah. She doesn’t usually like strangers this much. But she seems quite taken with you.” Louis grinned when Sandy squeaked happily and began rearranging Jamie’s curls. 

“Is she okay?” Harry asked worriedly. “She won’t bite her?” 

“Once Sandy decides she likes someone, you’re hers– Ooops!” He plucked Sandy off Jamie as she headed for the front of Jamie’s blouse and the delicate beading on the placket. “You know better than that.” He scooped her up and put her back in the cage and turned back to find Jamie gazing up at her father with hearts in her eyes. 

“Aren’t they pretty, Daddy?” 

Harry glared at Louis over her head and received an apologetic shrug in return. “They are very pretty. But they also take a lot of special care. And we couldn’t take them with us like we can Bonkers” 

Jamie’s shoulders drooped and she walked over to the cage. “Yeah, I guess.” She straightened up and faced Louis with a bright smile. “Can I come visit them sometime, Detetive Tomlinson?” 

“Of course you can! I think Sandy would love that.” He winked at her. "And I thought I was Mister Louis now." 

Jamie nodded happily. “Yay!” 

Harry watched her dance with the birds for a few minutes before looking at his watch. “We have to get going, pumpkin. We don’t want to be late.” 

Jamie bounced back over and grabbed Louis’ hand. “We’re going to go see my Uncle Lyle play!” 

Louis swung her hand, a little taken aback, knowing what he did about Harry’s relationship with Lyle Clarke. “I know!” 

“You like football a lot, huh? You played really good at my house.” 

“I do. Football is one of my favourite things.” Louis grabbed his keys and wallet before letting Jamie drag him from the flat. “Who’s your favourite team?” 

Jamie scrunched up her face a bit as though thinking. “Well, my daddy likes the Manchester Nited team. But my Uncle Lyle plays for the Chelsea team, so I like them both, a lot. So I will be happy whoever wins today!” She swung herself between Louis and Harry, her little boot clad feet lifting off the ground. “Who’s you’re favourite?” 

“I’m a Manchester United fan, like your dad.” 

Jamie dropped their hands to skip ahead. She turned around so she was walking backwards. “Are you from Manchester? My daddy is from Homes Chapel, it’s really near there.” 

“Nope, I’m from a place called Doncaster, it’s in Yorkshire.” 

“Oh.” She contemplated this for a bit. “Doesn’t Don Caster have a football team?” 

“They do and I like them very much. But my favourite player used to play for Manchester.” 

“Is it Mister Beckham? He’s my daddy’s favourite.” 

Louis stopped short and turned to face Harry only to find him grinning widely. “Your six-year-old has met David Beckham?” 

“I got to play football with Mister Beckham and um–“ She started ticking off her fingers, “Romeo, Cruz, Brooklyn and Harper. The boys were dumb, but me and Harper had fun playing with our daddies.” 

Louis was having trouble finding his voice. “I– “ He looked from Harry to Jamie and back again. 

Harry chuckled and patted him on the back. “C’mon fanboy. If we’re gonna grab a bite to eat before the game we should get going.” 

Jamie hauled Louis thought the door of the tiny restaurant not far from her home. “Hi, Mister Mac!” She greeted the huge man behind the counter. 

“Missy Jim!” The man came out and swung her up in his arms. 

Jamie hugged him tight and planted a kiss on his scruffy cheek. “I missed you.” 

“Well, we all missed you too, sugar.” He turned to face the rest of the small restaurant. “Look who’s back!” 

The staff all came to fuss over Jamie and she showed off her missing tooth and her new boots before turning back to Louis and Harry. “This is Mister Louis. He’s the one who saved me and caught the bad men. We’re gonna go see Uncle Lyle play.” 

The restauranteur’s grin widened and he offered Louis his hand. “Darius MacBride, it’s an honour to meet you.” His eyes actually glistened. “Thank you for saving this little treasure.” 

Louis shook his hand. “Louis Tomlinson, and we were all just doing our job.” 

MacBride rolled his eyes. “And there ya go, being all humble. Well that’s fine, we’ll just have to get you fed up right now, won’t we? I supposed Missy Jim here will be wanting the usual?” He winked at Jamie who giggled and nodded. “You two will be having what you’re given.” He ruffled Jamie’s curls and headed back to the kitchen. 

“Friends of yours?” Louis asked as they followed Jamie to the back table in the cozy space. No one made any sort of fuss about Harry, which wasn’t terribly surprising since it seemed to be more of a business crowd, their suits and ties an interesting contrast to all the green and gold American football paraphernalia adorning the walls. 

Harry chuckled as they settled into their booth. “When I heard he had a restaurant here I had to come in. I asked for an autograph he asked back and we’ve been friends ever since. He adores this one, and the food is amazing” He hugged Jamie who was colouring the placemat the waitress had brought for her. 

“Autograph?” Louis craned his neck to get another look at McBride. “Should I recognise him?” Louis was very good with faces and he was certain he had never seen McBride before. 

“Not unless you’re into American football.” 

“Ah. Well. . .” He nodded at the wall above their table. “I wouldn’t know him then. I take he’s a bit of a big deal?” 

“He’s one of the greats, played thirteen years on the Packers defensive line. He played in five Pro-Bowls and won two Super Bowls! ” 

“How did a kid from Cheshire end up a fan of the– Packers?” 

Harry nodded. “Yeah, the Green Bay Packers.” He paused as the waitress brought them tea and a glass of milk for Jamie. “A friend of mine is from Wisconsin and is a huge fan, he got me hooked.” 

“Okay. And how does an American football hero end up owning a restaurant in Hampstead?” 

“By falling in love and marrying the most beautiful English rose in all the world.” McBride answered for Harry. He had arrived at the table carrying three dishes. “And since London didn’t have anywhere to get my favourite dishes, here we are. My daddy was a chef, worked with Miz Chase herself when I was a boy. I don’t make things as fancy as he did, but I did steal a few of his best recipes.” He placed one dish in front of Jamie. “Chicken and greens for Missy Jim.” Louis and Harry each got a bowl and a smaller plate of bread. 

Harry clapped and cheered. “Gumbo!” 

“Got a shipment of shrimp last night. Some of the best I’ve ever had.” MacBride grinned at Louis. “You ever had gumbo, son?” 

“Can’t say I have.” Louis’ bowl held a thick stew with huge shrimp, what appeared to be a sausage of some type and a green vegetable he didn’t recognise, all served over rice. 

“Well then, I hope you enjoy! Had those shrimp shipped all the way from home” McBride winked at Jamie and waggled his eyebrows at Harry then took his leave. 

Louis took a careful bite of the spicy stew. “Oh, my God!” 

“S’good innit.” Harry tucked into his own dish, breaking of a piece of the cornbread he took a mouthful of the stew. “Mmmmmmm” 

Louis mouth all but dried up watching Harry enjoy his meal. There really should be laws about– He was pulled from his reverie by Jamie. 

“Would you like to try a bite of my chicken Mister Louis?” 

He blinked a couple of times then glared when he saw Harry’s knowing smirk. “I don’t know. Is it very good chicken?” 

“Best chicken in all of England!” She cried, repeating what the sign in the window boasted. 

“Well then, I best have a nibble.” 

They spent the rest of the meal trading bites back and forth and teasing Harry about his love of all things Packers. After sharing a piece of truly sinful coconut cream cake, Harry signaled for the check only to have McBride show up at their table, arms crossed. “We can’t celebrate getting this little angel back, hmm?” 

“Mac–“ 

“Harry.” 

Harry rolled his eyes. “Fine, you win this time.” He wagged his finger. “But no more.” 

Louis had to admire his bravery, McBride looked like he could tear a compact car in half. 

“Yeah, whatever pop star. You best get your skinny ass outta here if you want to make your game.” He slapped Harry on the back, ruffled Jamie’s curls then reeled Louis in for a bone crushing hug. “You rescue angels, you don’t pay in my house. Got it?” 

“Yes, sir,” Louis gasped. “Thank you. It was an amazing meal.” 

“You’re welcome back any time.” 

  

Louis tried very hard not to look as impressed and awed as he was when they entered the luxurious suite at Stamford Bridge. He’d only ever sat in the cheap seats so this was a whole new experience. The tables set with linens and the full bar set up were a bit more highbrow than the beer in plastic cups he and his mates usually enjoyed. There were half a dozen people in the box when they arrived. 

“Harper!” Jamie dodged around Harry and Louis and ran to greet her friend. The two girls hugged and squealed while Louis turned to face Harry. 

“Harry?” 

“Yes, Louis.” 

“Am I going to watch a football game with David Beckham?” 

“Well, I figured if I could do this on our first date, it might increase the likelihood of us having a second date. One that involves fewer six-year-olds.” 

“So it’s a bribe?” 

“Think of it as more of a perk?” 

Something in Harry’s face made Louis feel like this wasn’t as much of a joke as it should be. “Ha–“ 

“Hi, Harry.” They both looked down to see little Harper Beckham staring up at Harry with stars in her eyes. 

“Well, hello there, Harper.” Harry kneeled down to the girl’s level. “How are you?” 

Louis had to turn away and bite his lip when she blushed and scuffed her shoe against the carpet. “I’m good. Do you like my new haircut?” She fluffed the chin length bob and did a turn. 

“I think it’s very pretty.” 

Harper blushed even brighter pink, did a sort of a half curtsy and bolted to the other side of the room to hide behind her father. 

Louis was trying valiantly not to giggle helplessly but lost the fight in the end. “That was adorable!” 

“Oh, hush.” Harry’s glare held no heat. “She’s five.” 

“Yes, but she clearly thinks you hung the moon.” 

“Yeah, let’s see how together you are, hmm.” Harry turned Louis to face the man who had just joined them. “David!” 

“Thanks for coming, Harry.” David pulled Harry in for a friendly hug. “How are you doing? Jamie looks great!” 

“Thank you, we’re both good and thanks to you and Victoria for the flowers, it meant a lot.” 

“H!” Another familiar face made his way across the room and enveloped Harry in a tight hug. 

This time Harry leaned into the hug, clutching the man close and burying his face in his neck. 

“Ah, love, I wish I’d been here. I’m so sorry. I tried. I just got in this morning.” James Corden rubbed Harry’s back soothingly. 

“I know. Your calls helped keep me together, believe me.” Harry drew back and scrubbed his hand across his eyes. 

“She looks amazing, all sparkles and happiness, I was informed that the tooth fairy had paid her a visit.” James looked over to were Jamie and Harper were teasing Harper’s older brothers. “I’m so happy we got her back–“ Corden’s voice cracked. 

Harry cleared his throat and turned his attention back to Louis. “Speaking of. . . David Beckham, James Corden, I’d like you to meet Detective Inspector Louis Tomlinson, he’s the one responsible for getting Jamie home safe and sound.” 

Corden actually had tears in his eyes when he turned to Louis, he grabbed both his hands and squeezed. “Thank you. Thank you so–,” He choked to a stop. 

Louis squeezed back. “You’re welcome, it’s what makes the job worth doing.” 

Corden just nodded with a smile and let Louis go. Louis caught his wink at Harry out of the corner of his eye but dismissed it because DAVID FREAKING BECKHAM! 

“It’s nice to meet you Louis. I’d like to add my thanks for what you do and bringing Jamie home safe.” 

Louis shook his idol’s hand and hoped his own wasn’t shaking too hard and was at least mostly dry. “It’s nice to meet you, too.” He was proud he was able to keep his voice steady, mostly 

“Louis’ a huge fan.” Harry piped up unhelpfully. 

“Well, thank you for that as well.” 

Watching the game with one of the greatest players ever to lace on football boots turned out to be– just like watching with any other football fan much to Louis surprise and delight. There was beer and banter just like any other game with mates and Louis thoroughly enjoyed himself. After the game they were loading a sleeping Jamie into the backseat when someone called Harry’s name. Louis turned to find three visibly vibrating teen girls. “Ohh, I’m sorry I didn’t see Jamie.” The tallest of the girls whispered. “I hope we didn’t wake her.” 

Harry looked into the car where Louis was buckling Jamie into her booster seat. “No, its okay, she’s still out.” 

The girls all sagged with relief. “I’m glad.” The tallest one. Bit her lip and asked shyly. “Can we um–, I, uh know you’re not working but, we–“ she waved her hand to include her friends, “all of us have been fans for years. Cassie,” A tiny brunette smiled nervously. “She even voted for you when you were on the X-Factor. So can we, you know, um–“ She twisted her hands and shook her head. “Never mind, it’s okay, I know you don’t like to do fan stuff when Jamie is with you.” She turned back to her less than impressed friends. “It was nice–“ 

“Would you like a picture?” Harry offered gently. 

“But you–“ 

“Jamie’s asleep. I just don’t like it when people crowd her, and I worry about her being safe. If you would just not mention she was here when you share the photos?” 

“Oh, of course!” It was clear she was making and effort to stay calm. “Oh thank you. Oh wow!” 

Harry smiled broadly. “I know she’s Cassie. . . “ 

“Oh, I’m Lena, and this is Becky.” All three girls had their phones out. “A group photo would be okay.” 

“Nah, everyone can have their own. Unless you just want a group–“ 

“NO!” Lena, shook her head vehemently. “I mean, um, individual pictures would be nice.” 

Louis watched them fumbled with their phones, their nerves and excitement getting the better of them, before he came around the car. “Why don’t you let me take those for you. Get a proper shot.” 

All three girls stopped short to stare at him. It was very obvious the moment they all recognised him. “OH MY GOD!” Cassie squealed. “You’re Louis!” 

“Uh, hi?’ Louis waved hesitantly, not quite sure what to make of this reaction. 

“You’re like a real life hero!” She exclaimed as all three girls crowded around him. 

“You saved Jamie!” Becky reached out and touched his arm. “OMG, you’re kind of amazing.” 

“Thanks?” Louis looked over their heads to find Harry smirking back at him, he shot him a dirty look and turned his attention back to the young women. He sent a thank to his mother for providing him with the experience necessary to deal with this situation. “Okay, if you want your picture with–“ 

“Are you two, like, dating now?” Becky’s eyes went wide and hopeful. 

Louis had no idea what they were, but whatever it was he certainly had no intention of sharing it with these girls. “We’re friends. Now–“ 

“So you met when you save Jamie’s life and now you’re hanging out and stuff?” 

“Something like that. Now–“ 

“That is so cool!” Becky looked between him and Harry. “You’d make a really gorgeous couple though.” 

“Thank you, you’re very sweet.” He tried again. “If you want your pic–“ 

“I mean, Harry’s like the most, just wow, but you’re super hot too. I like your hair.” She waved her hand across her forehead. 

“Thank you.” He tried to glare at Harry again but found him worrying his bottom lip with a frown on his face. Deciding this had gone on long enough. He plucked Becky’s phone from her hand. “We best take those photos we need to get Jamie home to bed.” 

“Okay.” Becky and her friends bounced over to Harry. 

Louis watched Harry morph into Pop-Star Harry Styles as he smiled and teased the girls as they tried to decide who was going to go first. Louis waved Becky’s phone. “I already have this, so you, miss,” he pointed at Becky. “Are going to go first.” 

  

One at a time the girls tucked themselves in to Harry’s side and smiled happily. Harry was patient and waited for them to make sure they had their smiles just right. Once all three girls had their photos and one group one, Becky shyly approached Louis. “Can I, um, would it be okay,” She glanced back a the other two girls. “Could I get a photo with you too?” 

Louis could once again see Harry looked less than pleased. “I don’t–“ 

Harry came to his side. “Are you not okay with them taking your photo?” He lowered his voice further. “I can–“ 

“No, it’s okay, I thought–,” He took a good look at Harry and saw it was concern rather than anger or annoyance that darkened his features. “I would love to have a photo with you, Becky.” 

The girls all clamoured to have their photo taken with ‘a real live hero’. Once everyone was satisfied with their pictures the girls all said their thank you’s and good byes and walked off giggling and already sending them off to Twitter or Tumblr or wherever. 

  

The ride back to Louis’ flat was quiet in deference to Jamie who was sound asleep in the rear seat. Louis spent the trip thinking about the way Harry had looked when he was interacting with those fans. There had been the funny look when he had talked about a second date earlier but Louis hadn’t really thought much of it until it returned with the fans. 

When they arrived at Louis’ building, Harry got out of the car. “I’d walk you up but. . .” He nodded to Jamie. 

“It’s okay.” Louis shuffled his feet not sure how to approach what he wanted to ask. “Is there–“ 

“You know–“ Harry spoke at the same time. “Sorry.” 

“No, it’s okay.” Louis waved him on, grateful for the reprieve. 

Harry took a deep breath. “You know those girls are going to tell everyone that we were together tonight.” 

This brought Louis up short, it wasn’t what he had been expecting. “Okay?” 

“There will probably be Twitter accounts and Tumblr blogs devoted to you by morning.” 

“Do you have a problem with that?” Something didn’t sound right here. 

Harry continued on as though he hadn’t heard Louis. “It will probably get a bit intense.” 

“Well, they don’t have my Twitter and I’m pretty sure I’d have to ask one of my sisters to even find me a Tumblr.” 

“Check your phone.” Harry had his own phone in his hand. 

Louis was still trying to puzzle out where Harry’s strange, almost defeated attitude was coming from so he pulled out his phone and found out his Twitter notifications had indeed blown up and his follower count had increased exponentially. “Oh.” 

“You weren’t exactly hard to find. You used your name.” Harry tucked his phone back in his pocket. “Well, today was fun, thank you.” He started back to the car. 

“Harry!” Louis moved quickly to intercept him. “What the hell?” He stepped in front of Harry and was shocked when Harry couldn’t meet his eyes, Harry was the king of eye contact! He reached out to touch Harry’s arm “What’s going on? Is it that those girls wanted a picture with me?” That didn’t feel right but it was all Louis had. 

“No!” Harry stepped back. “God, no,” He paced back and forth. “I loved the way you handled them.” 

“Did you not have a good time today?” Louis knew damn well that wasn’t the case. It had been a great day, he and Harry had spent it laughing and talking and bantering about football and a thousand other topics. Playing and fussing over Jamie and just generally having an amazing time together. He knew he wanted that second date Harry had hinted at. Now he just needed to know what had caused such a turn about. 

“Yes! You know I did. It was great. You’re great.” 

“Okay?” Louis stopped his pacing with a hand on his arm. “Harry, what’s going on?” 

Harry looked around the deserted car park. “I just– I like you.” 

“I like you, too.” 

“No, I mean I think we could have something. I don’t if I’ve ever felt a connection like this with anyone.” 

Louis smiled softly, relieved that he wasn’t out here alone. “I know, and it’s nice. Isn’t it.” 

“Is it?” 

“I’m trying to figure out how any of this is a bad thing. I’m gonna need more information.” 

Harry’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Now you sound like a cop.” 

Louis shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah, well. . . .” He watched Harry carefully and silently, aware that he was struggling with something. 

“Do you have any idea what kind of shit show it’s going to be if people find out we’re seeing each other?” 

And there it was. “Harry–“ 

“No!” Harry waved him off. “They are going to be ruthless. It’s already started. Every day there’s another headline screaming about who I’m seeing and how many different men I’ve been with and which closeted celebrities I may have had affairs with. Hell, Lyle didn’t want to meet after the game because he was afraid to start them speculating about him.” 

Louis was aware of how difficult it was to come out, the way you had to learn the hard way who you true friends were. He also understood Clarke’s fear of being outed. But none of that applied to him. “What exactly is it you’re afraid of here, Harry?” 

“I– I– don’t–“ He stuttered to a stop. 

“Harry.” 

“I’m twenty-five years old and I’ve never had a relationship last a year. I’ve only had one last more than six months!” Harry’s voiced echoed across the car park. He ran his hand through his hair roughly. “And he decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle. That I wasn’t worth it.” 

Suddenly it all made sense. “Oh, Harry.” Louis stepped closer. “Is that why you think you had to impress me with the game and Beckham today?” 

“I thought, maybe if you saw some of the good things that come with being in my life, the shit might not be so bad.” His mouth twisted into a parody of his beautiful smile. “Then we saw those girls and they made such a fuss and I realised that if Mike couldn’t handle it and no one even knew about him, then what would happen once the press and fans got hold of you.” 

“You don’t think I could handle it?” 

“You shouldn’t have too!” 

“So you’re going to be alone for the rest of your life?” Louis pushed. 

“I–“ 

Louis stepped right into his personal space. “What if I think you’re worth all the stuff that goes with being in a relationship with you.” He touched the front of the brightly coloured shirt that just suited Harry so perfectly. “I deal with a lot of shit in my job. People being generally as horrible as they can be. The press riding us and making our lives difficult–“ 

“Then you don’t need that in–“ 

“My bosses never let up.” Louis continued. “The public having lost faith in us, a lot of the time, justifiably. And you think I can’t handle a few fans and tabloid reporters?” 

“You shouldn’t have to!” 

“Why not? You do!” 

Harry had to swallow twice and clear his throat. “I don’t want to fall in love with you, only for you to decide you can’t be with me because of all the crap that surrounds me, and– and I–“ his voice cracked and he stuttered to a stop.

“I think you’re worth it.” Louis stated simply. “I think we could be kind of amazing together.” He was pleased to see a ghost of a smile. “I can’t make any guarantees, neither can you. But I like being with you. It’s easier and more–“ He reached for the right word one that wasn’t completely cheesy and winced when he failed. “Comfortable–“ He wrinkled his nose when Harry giggled at him. “Shut up.” 

“I like comfortable. I could really use comfortable about now. God, comfortable sounds fucking amazing.” Harry’s face relaxed for the first time since they met the fans. “I’m sorry I lost it there.” 

“Hey you’re entitled, you’ve had a pretty horrific couple of weeks.” Louis took his hand. “Who the hell knows what’s going to happen? We just take things as the come, yeah?” 

Harry nodded. “Yeah.” He squeezed Louis’ hand. “That sounds pretty good.” 

Louis shuffled a bit closer, he tangled their fingers together and smiled coyly. “So, about that second date?” 


	7. Dinner and a Movie?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Harry and Louis' relationship progresses, Louis' past comes back to haunt him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive thank you to my beta/Britpickers the wonderful
> 
> [Lou](http://wariormum.tumblr.com), [Sheena](http://conscious--ramblings.tumblr.com) and Sam

Chapter 7

Dinner and Movie?

Louis stood with his hands on his hips, glaring at the woman giggling hysterically on his sofa. “I hate you.”

Cara sat up and tried to made an obvious attempt to get herself under control. “Aww, Lou. I’m sorry. I just–“ And off she went.

“Mean! One of these days I’m going to trade you in for a puppy.” Louis stomped into his kitchen and flung open his cupboard. “I asked you over here to help me!”

Cara came up behind him and wrapped herself around him. “I know, I just cannot figure out why you said you’d cook?”

“I don’t know!” Louis wailed. “We did the game, and then dinner the other night was amazing, and he brought me a picnic lunch yesterday, a _homemade_ PICNIC! So I wanted to do something special!”

“So order something in!”

“I can’t! I said I’d cook it!” Louis waved his hands toward the open and mostly empty cupboard. “I hate cooking for myself, so I don’t even have any ingredients and even if I did, everything I know how to make is boring!”

“You really think Harry will care if you serve spaghetti.”

Louis turned to glare at her. “I’d care.”

Cara rolled her eyes at him. “Fine.” She grabbed his arm and towed him back into the sitting room. She pushed him down on the sofa and disappeared only to return with his laptop. “There are very few thing you can’t learn from a few good Youtube videos.” She opened the computer and began her search. “You find something that looks amazing, but not too difficult, we go shopping and then get to work.” 

“Care-Bear?”

“Yes, Boo Bear?”

Louis wrapped her in a tight hug. “I love you, you know that, right?”

“Of course you do.” She patted him on the knee. “And I love you. More than anything.” 

Half an hour of searching and some heated discussion about the depth of Louis’ skill in the kitchen later, they had a plan, a list and were off to the shops.

 

Louis was just putting the finishing touches on the table when the door buzzed. He took a deep breath, turned in a circle, adjusted the flowers upon which Cara had insisted and nodded, satisfied. “Looks good, doesn’t it guys?” The birds chirped happily and dug into the snack he dropped onto their cage-top perch.

He opened the door to Harry’s knock and about lost his breath. Harry was in black. Unrelieved, glorious, sexy black. A loose, sheer, sinfully soft looking, shirt unbuttoned to show off just enough of his tattoos to be intriguing, skin tight black jeans and the boots Louis was coming to expect. His hair was soft and loose, his smile wide and warm. “Hey.”

Harry’s smile broadened even more. “Hey yourself.” He dropped the bottle he was carrying on the table beside the door, reached out and grabbed Louis’ belt loop and reeled him in, pulling him against his chest and burying his face in his neck. “Hmmm.”

Louis wrapped his arms around Harry’s shoulders and rubbed his back. “You okay?” He could feel the tension in the muscles under his hands.

“Hmm.” Harry hummed again, pressing his lips to Louis throat. “One of those days.” He pulled back enough to look at Louis, but didn’t let him go. “You look nice.” He ran his fingers through Louis’ hair. “I like it soft like this.”

Louis gasped and grabbed for his head and found his hair product free. “I–“ He cleared his throat and straightened his shoulders slightly. “Thank you.”

Harry started to giggle, his shoulders shaking under Louis hands. He bit his bottom lip trying to get his mirth under control. 

Louis stepped back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Oh, shut it, would you, I was busy.” He turned and marched into the kitchen.

Harry retrieved the bottle and followed him into the flat. “I think it looks great without all the stuff in it.” He handed Louis the wine. “Soft, very touchable.” He reached out to flip a piece of Louis fringe out of his eyes. 

Louis rolled his eyes. “Thanks.” He grabbed the corkscrew and opened the wine Harry had provided.

“Well I like it.” He watched Louis open the wine and finally seemed to notice his surroundings. “Wow, you have been busy.” The table was set for two. Complete with candles and flowers. There were three different pots on the stove top and something in the oven smelled amazing. “You didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”

Louis poured them each a glass of wine. “Once I got over the initial panic that I had promised you a home cooked meal, it wasn’t too bad.” He handed Harry a glass of the rich red wine. “I like to cook, it’s just I rarely bother to cook for myself so my repertoire is somewhat limited.”

“So am I getting a Louis Tomlinson specialty.”.

Louis snorted. “Hardly. I tend to stick to pretty simple stuff.”

“Whatever it is, it smells amazing in here.”

“Thanks, I hope it tastes as good.”

They chatted easily while they waited for dinner to be ready. Louis was once again amazed at how comfortable things were with Harry, it felt as though he had known him for years rather than weeks. They hopped from subject to subject, switching easily from what it was like to travel the world and see very little of it, to growing up in a houseful of younger sisters. They had just started arguing cheerfully about the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle, to which neither of the ascribed, when the timer went off. Harry helped him get the food on the table and they sat down to enjoy the fruits of Louis’ labours.

 

Harry pushed himself back from the table. “That was incredible!” He snatched the last piece of the cheese filled chicken off Louis’ plate. “Mmmm.”

Louis grinned, he’d only had a few meals with Harry but was already used to having him steal food from his plate. “Do you have room for dessert?”

“How about we save dessert for a bit later, I don’t think I could eat more right now.”

“Later works.” They gathered their wine and headed for the sitting room. “Movie?”

Harry nodded and toed his boots off. “Something mindless would be great.”

“Mindless I can do.”

They were comfortably situated on the couch, Louis had his legs draped over Harry’s and his head on his shoulder and were twenty minutes into a film that involved a lot of explosions when Louis moved his hand to give one of Harry’s curls a gentle tug. “Hey, where’d you go?” It was clear to him that Harry wasn’t paying any attention to the movie.

Harry leaned his head into Louis’ hand. “Hmmm?”

Louis had to chuckle, Harry was like a cat, he loved to be touched. “You’re not watching the film and you’ve been a bit distracted since you got here.” He paused the movie. “You want to talk about it?” He watched Harry clench and unclench his jaw. “Hey, what is it?”

“The idiots want me to take a date to the The Gala.”

“Beckham’s thing?” Harry nodded and Louis rolled this over in his head. He knew Harry had been looking forward to the Gala Charity Ball the Beckham’s were hosting, he had donated a private performance to the auction, it was expected to be one of the highest earners of the night. “Why now? I mean you always fly solo at these things, right?”

“Yeah, but that was mostly because I refused to walk a red carpet with someone I wasn’t actually seeing.”

“Okay.” Louis had a bad feeling about this.

“They left it alone before, even with Devon, they never made me do anything like an official appearance, other than the bullshit on New Years, but even that was all about the fans and what they saw. This is different.” He peeked up at Louis through his lashes. “I think they want me to look settled.”

Louis snorted, could they be any more obvious? “So it was okay for you to be seen to have a different woman every week as long as everyone thought you were banging girls, but now that everyone knows you’re gay you have to be the epitome of a one man man?” 

“Pretty much.”

“H?”

“Yeah?”

“You are the epitome of a one man man.”

“Am not!”

“You forget how much I know about your life.” 

“You don’t know everything!” Harry pouted, eyes twinkling merrily much to Louis’ relief.

“Your lone pressure release valve was a close friend who was also in the closet.’

“I–“ Harry wrinkled his nose. “I might have hooked up with other people, I just, well, you know.”

Louis smiled softly. “I get that you had to be discreet, but are you trying to tell me that if you had been able to date who ever you wanted, you’d have had a string of guys?

“No.” Harry admitted with a bashful grin. “I like having a boyfriend.”

“Yeah, me too.” Louis tapped him on the chin. “What did they say, that’s bothering you so much?” He watched as Harry’s face fell and he avoided meeting his eye. “Ah, I see, I’m guessing I’m not at the top of their list of perspective dates.”

“They’ve picked some up and coming model for me to date. Apparently he’s trying to get into acting and needs more exposure.” He turned to face Louis and finally looked up clearly still angry. “That’s what the row was about. I told them I already had someone in my life and that they could go fuck themselves. It ended poorly.”

“Okay then. Do I need a tux for this thing or will a suit do?”

Harry just blinked at him.

“What, you thought I would be insulted?”

“Well, yeah. I was.”

“Pftt. Look.” Louis pushed Harry’s shoulders back against the sofa and shifted so he straddled his lap. “You want to be with me, yeah?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want to take hot young thing to the Gala?”

“Not even a little bit.”

“Do you want to take me to the Gala?”

“Yes.”

“Are we going to be the hottest couple on the Red Carpet?”

Harry pulled Louis flush against his chest. “I know I’ll have the hottest fucking date.”

Louis decided that deserved a reward. “It’s settled then.” He dipped his head down to drop a quick kiss on Harry’s mouth only to have Harry pull him even closer and deepen the kiss. Louis ran his hands up and over Harry’s shoulder and around his neck. At the same time Harry buried his hands in Louis’ hair tugging gently to expose Louis’ neck. Louis couldn’t help the tiny mewling sounds he made as Harry nibbled his way down his throat. Harry had just gone to work on the buttons of Louis’ shirt when a phone buzzed. “Fuck.”

“Hmm, don’t answer it.” Harry murmured as he ran his tongue across the tattoo just beneath Louis’ collarbone.

Louis dropped his head onto Harry shoulder with a mournful groan. “I have to, it’s work.” He reached for his phone. “You’re about to find out what it means to date a cop. Tomlinson.”

 

Louis rushed into the office and headed for Liam’s desk. “What the hell?”

“I know. Don’t fucking ask me, I don’t know any more than you do.” Liam stood to greet his partner. “C’mon, Ben wants us.”

Louis followed him into Ben’s office and sat waiting until their obviously angry boss got off the phone. “Thanks for coming in on your evening off.” Ben picked up a file and handed it to Louis. “You need to see this.”

Louis flipped open the file and started to read the information it contained. He got halfway through the first page before he exploded. “What the fuck is this?”

“Lou–“

“When?”

“Louis–“

“WHEN?”

Liam laid a hand on Louis’ arm only to have it roughly shrugged away. “Dammit, Ben, just fucking tell me!”

“Three days ago.”

Louis flipped the file back at Ben sending its contents flying over the desk. “Jesus fuck! Why am I only being told about this now?”

“I’ve known about it since about five minutes before I called you.”

Louis got up and paced to the window glaring out into the dark. Liam kept one eye on his partner as he grabbed the paper. He shot to his feet as soon as he understood what he was reading. “How did it take three days for them to contact us? Louis should have been told the second it happened.”

“Believe me, I’ve been on the phone since I found out trying to figure out who needs to be fired for this. I’ve been getting the run around.”

“Tell me they at least have eyes on him.” Louis growled.

“They say they have two people on him at all times.” Ben stood and joined Louis at the window. “He won’t be out for long. He’ll screw up and we can throw him back in a cage where he belongs.”

“Yeah, sure, in the mean time I need to go make some fucking calls.” Louis shot Liam a look and left slamming the door behind him.

 

Louis was on his phone when Liam stepped outside into what they called the smokers room, a small area outside the backdoor of the station furnished with a few mismatched pieces of patio furniture and an awning to protect them from the rain. “Okay, Jake, just wanted to make sure you knew, thanks mate.” He disconnected and turned to face Liam. “They didn’t even bother to fucking call Ella!”

“Lou–“

“He killed her husband, Liam.” Louis paced back and forth across the small space. “I need a fucking cigarette.”

“Lou, come inside.”

“Her husband and they didn’t even bother to let her know he’s out!” 

“Lou–“ 

“This is a fucking joke!” Louis took a swing at the wall only to have Liam grab his hand in a firm grip.

“Last time you did that you broke two knuckles.”

Louis wrenched his hand away from his partner. “You need to talk to your man.”

“Zayn doesn’t know anything about this.”

“Yeah, well someone in his office does. It’s their name on the paperwork that got him out.”

“We don’t know what he offered them–“

Louis spun around furiously. “I don’t care what he offered! HE KILLED MY FUCKING PARTNER!”

“I–“

“No, Li, you know I love you and you’re a great partner, but do _not_ make excuses for them getting that animal out. They let a cop killer go free! He killed Adam! He cost Ella her husband, and Deena and Benji their father.”

“And he cost you Jerrold.” Liam added softly. “I know, Louis, I was there, remember? I get that you’re pissed. I get why you’re pissed, but–“

“He’s going to take a run at me, you know that, right. He’s got it in that twisted fucking skull of his that _I_ betrayed _him._ , he tried to kill me, but it’s my fault he’s in– was inside.”

“They have him under constant surveillance.”

“So did we. We thought he was helping us too remember? I thought he was working to help me bring down Ashland, right up until he cut Adam’s throat and stuck the knife in my liver.” Louis stepped into Liam’s space. “He was playing us then, and he’s playing them now.”

Liam’s shoulders drooped. “Yeah, I know.” He ran his hand over his short cropped hair. “We’re going to need to put someone on you.”

“Li–“

“You’ve been in every paper in the country for almost a month.”

“I know.” Louis pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I have to call Harry.”

“Since the kidnapping, his place is almost as secure as the palace.”

“No, I know that, I have to tell him I can’t–“ 

Liam clamped his hand over Louis’ mouth. “Try not to be any stupider than you have to be. He’s never involved anyone else, he doesn’t do collateral damage. Harry’s fine.”

Louis shook him off. “I was going to say I have to tell him I’m going to be back really late tonight, and he should go home, he’s waiting at my place.”

“Oh. Yes, well, yeah.” Liam grinned desperate to lighten the mood. “Heh, so, you guys are really. . .”

Louis rolled his eyes. “We were trying when your boy and his idiots decided to break Gabriel Marsden out of prison and fucked up me plans for the evening.”

 

Louis was exhausted by the time he got home at half three and was not looking forward to having to clean up the mess from his aborted dinner date. He’d spent the last two hours on the phone yelling at whoever he could find to yell at. He finally ended up speaking to Zayn for over an hour as his friend tried to assure him that they knew what they were doing. Louis had hung up in disgust after informing Zayn that he and Adam had thought they knew what they were doing with Marsden as well and look how that turned out.

He entered the darkened flat and headed for the kitchen only to find it spotless. He then moved into the sitting room to find Harry sound asleep on his sofa. He smiled softly and knelt down beside him. He brushed the messy curls back from Harry’s face. “Hey.” 

Harry blinked sleepily and smiled up at Louis. “You’re home.”

Louis swallowed hard at the sound of his sleep roughened voice. “I have to say, you’re exactly what I needed to see when I got home.” He brushed the back of his hand across Harry’s warm cheek.

Harry pressed his face into Louis’ hand. “Hmmm. You sounded so upset when you called I didn’t want you to come home to an empty flat.”

Louis dropped his head onto Harry’s chest and sighed. “Thank you.”

Harry ran his hand over Louis’ head and moved him gently so he could sit up. “C’mon, lets get you into bed.” Harry got up from the sofa, took Louis by the hand and led him into the bedroom.

Louis was so exhausted and plain wrung out he let Harry undress him down to his pants and tuck him into bed. Harry leaned over to press a kiss to Louis lips and started to leave the room. Louis grabbed his hand. “Can you stay?”

Harry hesitated. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it would be really nice to have you here tonight.” Louis was already starting to drift off.

“I can do that.” Harry stripped down to his pants and climbed into bed behind Louis and pulled him back against his chest. He nuzzled his face into Louis neck and whispered, “Sleep.”

“Hmmm, kay.” Louis murmured before succumbing to his exhaustion. 

 

He woke to the most glorious smells. Louis groaned and grabbed his phone off the bedside table. It was just after eleven, he’d actually managed to get a decent amount of sleep. He slipped out of bed and pulled on a pair of trackies and a t-shirt and followed his nose. He found Harry in the kitchen just pulling something heavenly out of the oven. “What is all this?” 

Harry spun around. “Oh, hey! You’re awake.” He came around the table to greet Louis. “Did you have a good sleep?”

“I did.” Louis stepped into Harry’s arms. “Thank you for staying. I really liked having you here.”

“I’m glad it helped.” He grabbed Louis’ hand and led him to the table. “Sit. I made breakfast.”

“Can I keep you?” Louis teased.

“All it takes is breakfast? Jesus you’re easy.” 

“I can’t remember the last time I had a hot breakfast.” Louis dug into the plate of food Harry placed in front of him. “It may have been last Christmas at me mum’s”

“I noticed a rather extensive cereal selection.” 

“I like cereal.” Louis shovelled a forkful of creamy scrambled eggs into his mouth. “Not as much as I like this though. Hmmm, yum.”

Harry settled next to him with his own plate. They ate in silence for e few minutes before Harry finally ventured softly. “Are you feeling any better today?”

“I’m not really going to feel better until Marsden is back in a cage where he belongs.” Louis poured himself a cup of tea.

“This is the man you told me about, the one who stabbed you?”

“Yeah, I may have, uh, underplayed that a bit.”

“Okay.”

“He did stab me. But he also killed my partner.”

Harry’s fork clattered to his plate. “I–“ he reached out and took Louis’ hand. 

Louis squeezed back. “Yeah.” He took a deep breath. “It was two years ago. Marsden had been working with us for about six months trying to bring down a drug importer named Gareth Ashland. He was part of Ashland’s crew who came to us when Ashland killed his brother.” He took a sip of his tea, his hand trembling slightly. “We got a lot of great intel out of him, and were building a great case against Ashland when Marden double crossed us. He–“ Louis cleared his throat. “At our next meeting he pulled a knife and– he–“

Harry tightened his grip on Louis’ hand. “You don’t have to talk about it if it’s too hard.”

“No, you need to know, things might get a bit– rough for a while, you need to know what you’re getting into.” Louis took a deep breath and blew it out quickly. “At our next meeting he killed Adam and he tried to kill me, he almost succeeded.”

“I guess I knew it was serious but I didn’t realise it was that bad.”

“I spent two week in hospital, the first week in Intensive Care. I had three surgeries and was off work for two months.”

“And he’s out?” Harry asked incredulously. “How? Why?”

“Someone at the OCC thought what he had to offer was worth putting a cop killer back on the street.” Louis ground out. “The thing is. He’s a loser, he will screw up, he’s spent his entire life in and out of the bucket. He doesn’t know how to be anything other than a criminal. I just hope someone doesn’t have to pay to get him back inside”

“I– um–,” Harry hesitated. “How– erm. . .” He twisted his napkin into a knot.

Louis reached out to cover his hands. “What is it?”

“I guess I didn’t realise how closely you had to work with some pretty nasty people.”

“You’re wondering why I trusted him in the first place.”

“Well, yeah, kinda.”

“It’s one of the worst parts of the job, to be honest. Especially with narcotics. Most of our information comes from guys just like him. The bad guys turn on their bosses or their competition and we use that information to scrape up even badder guys. It’s one of the hardest parts of the job, knowing that some of these guys skate because they help us.”

Harry stared into his teacup for a few beats before asking. “This Marsden, is he– um, are you in any danger?”

Louis contemplated not telling him, for about ten seconds, but knew in the end if he was going to have a relationship with this man, he had to honest. “I might be.” He tangled their fingers together. “Okay, this isn’t me being an idiot or noble or anything else, but if you want to bail, I understand. This is a lot to take when we’ve had what, three dates?”

Harry shook his head vigorously. “Nope, not going anywhere. I don’t think this is something to just toss away.” He leaned in to drop a quick kiss on Louis’ lips. “And it’s been five dates thank you very much.”

“Five?” Louis quirked one eyebrow. “I can see four if we include lunch. But five?”

“Pool party.”

“Seriously?”

“Please, you think I didn’t have ulterior motives for a pool party?”

“Like what?”

“Like getting you half naked and wet?”

“I think you might have stretched the definition of date past it’s breaking point.” Louis dragged him close to kiss him deeply. “I didn’t even get a kiss at the end of the evening.”

“Hmmm.” Harry nibbled gently on Louis bottom lip. “I’ll have to make it up–“ he was interrupted by the ringing of Louis’ phone.

Louis couldn’t help laughing at the put out look on Harry’s face. “Sorry love, duty calls.”

“Hmmph.” Harry grumped. “I’m pretty sure duty is out to get me.” He got up from the table with a pretty pout and Louis went into the sitting room to take the call.

“Hey, Li.”

“Hey, Lou.” Liam sounded a bit nervous.

“Now what?”

“Nothing really bad. Just kind of annoying?”

Louis closed his eyes and leaned against the wall. “Go on.”

“Duffy wants to meet with you.”

“Oh, really?”

“He thinks you might have insight in how to deal with Marsden.”

Louis ground his teeth trying to control his temper, none of this was Liam’s fault. “How fucking magnanimous of him to talk to me now. After they let that fucking scum out of his cage.” 

“Yeah, so two?”

“Our office.”

“But they–“

“Our office or they can go fuck themselves. I don’t have to help them.”

“Don’t you think you’re being a bit– er. . .”

“Petty? Yes. Now ask me how I feel about that?”

“Fine, I’ll call Duffy and tell him they need to come to us.”

“Perfect!” Louis chirped and disconnected.

He headed back to the kitchen to find Harry scrubbing a frying pan. “You don’t have to do that, you cooked.”

“Eh, I’m fine, I don’t mind.” He dried his hands and set them on Louis waist. “Do you have to go?”

“Not quite yet. We have a few hours.”

“Good.” Harry hauled him into his arms. “I think we should make the most of it.”

Louis couldn’t help the grin that broke out. “Did you have any ideas about how we might pass the time?”

Harry’s eyes twinkled as he leaned in and drew Louis earlobe into his mouth. “I’m sure I can come up with a few ideas, if I try hard enough.”

Louis bit back a gasp as Harry tugged at the drawstring at the front of his pants. “I like a man with imagination.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I can be very imaginative.” Harry whispered huskily.

Louis was certain he could actually feel the blood pumping through his veins. He couldn’t remember ever wanting someone like this, then again he was having a tough time remembering his own name as Harry pulled him into the bedroom. “That sounds–“ he broke off with a squeak when Harry spun him around and drew him back against his chest. 

Harry pulled Louis’ shirt over his head and ran his hands down his chest back to the drawstrings, all the while pressing hot wet kisses to the side of Louis’ neck. He had just finished undoing the ties when the sound of a phone rang through the flat.

Both Harry and Louis started to laugh. “I’m beginning to think the stars are against us.” Harry kissed Louis’ shoulder one last time. “That’s Jamie’s ring.”

Louis remained in the bedroom trying to stop the room spinning and get his breathing under some semblance of control. He could hear Harry chatting with Jamie from the other room and knew their little assignation had come to an end. He pulled his t-shirt back on and followed the sound of Harry’s voice to the kitchen where he found him gulping down a bottle of cold water. 

“Seems the slumber party weekend has come to an early end.”

Louis was instantly concerned. “She’s okay?”

“Oh, yeah, Bug is fine, the little hostess has appendicitis though, so she’s in hospital.” 

“Oh, no! Poor little thing.”

“Yeah, so. . .” Harry shot him a rueful grin. “Now you get to find out what it’s like to date a single dad.”

Louis reached up and brushed a curl off Harry’s cheek. “I think I can handle it.”

Harry tangled their hands together and kissed Louis deeply. “Hmm. Me too.” He tipped his forehead against Louis’ and took a couple of deep breaths. “I have to go.”

Louis closed his eyes. “I know.” 

They stood the like that just breathing each other in for a few minutes until Harry straightened and cleared his throat. “Call me when you’re done with your meeting, yeah?”

Louis nodded and kissed him again. “I will. Say hi to Jamie for me.”

“I will.” One more quick kiss and Harry was gone.

Louis glanced over at the birds to find them staring at him from their perch. “A shower, maybe, nice and cold.”


	8. Surprise, Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A series of surprises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on Tumblr at [Fuzzypurplestuff](http://fuzzypurplestuff.tumblr.com/)
> 
> A massive thank you to my beta/Britpickers the wonderful
> 
> [Lou](http://wariormum.tumblr.com), [Sheena](http://conscious--ramblings.tumblr.com) and Sam

Chapter 8  
Surprise, Surprise

Louis strolled into the office at quarter past two holding two cups of coffee. He smirked at Liam’s disapproving look and shot Zayn a glare before he handed Liam one of the coffees and proceeded to get settled at his desk. He fussed around with his satchel and laptop for a few minutes, well aware of the four sets of eyes on him. Once he had everything to his liking he took a long sip of his coffee and addressed his audience. “So, who wants to tell me which of you fucking idiots got Marsden out of prison?”

“Lou–“ Liam stopped when Louis held up his hand.

“No. I’m not playing nice here, Li. These–“ he waved to indicate the three Organised Crime Command officers. “–Gentlemen, decided that a cop killer needed to be back on the streets! Since I’m one of the cops he tried to kill, I think I’m entitled to an explanation, don’t you?” The look he shot Liam had him rocking back in his seat.

Matt Duffy rolled his eyes. “He has valuable information–“

Liam was on his feet and right in Duffy’s personal space in a flash. “If I see you roll your eyes at him one more time I’ll carve them out of your fucking skull!” Zayn moved to stand between Liam and Duffy but Liam refused to back down. “Marsden killed his partner, a man who had a wife and two very small children. He’s not in a strop because he lifted his wallet, he almost fucking died because Marsden got greedy!” He jabbed Duffy in the chest. “So, if you want the cooperation from The Met you seem so hot for, you’ll damn well show some fucking respect!” Liam shook Zayn off roughly and dropped back into his seat. “Now, what do you want so we can get back to doing real police work?”

Duffy opened his mouth but was cut off by Zayn. “We just want to know what to look for. What Marsden did last time before he– uh. . . ”

“Decided he was going to try to take over Ashland’s territory for himself and just needed to murder a couple of cops to make it happen?” Louis chirped.

Zayn avoided Louis’ eyes and instead looked to Liam only to find him sitting with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. “We just want to avoid what happened last time.”

Louis rearranged a bit of paper on his desk, breathing deeply to try to get himself under control and to remember that Zayn was in fact his friend before he answered. “If we had even a single clue that he was going to turn, do you think he would have been able to get the jump on us like he did? Do you think that if we had seen _anything_ from him that hinted at a double cross we’d have met with him alone that night?” He got to his feet and tossed a file at Duffy. “That’s everything we know about him. Everything we had gathered before we turned him. Every detail of every meeting we had with him once we had.” 

Duffy picked up the thick file with a raised brow and started thumbing through it. “This is a lot of information.”

“Yeah, well, I had a lot of time on my hands after that scumbag skewered me.” Louis started gathering his things. “He’s playing you, just like he played us. He’s a career con and you’re his next marks. I just hope there aren’t any more bodies before you throw him back in the hole where he belongs.”

 

Louis was just settling into his seat on the bus when his phone buzzed. He saw Cara’s name and hesitated, just for a minute. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself.” Cara’s voice was cheerful and light. “You were meant to call me to let me know how dinner went! Did it turn out okay? Did Harry like it? Was it fun? Did you get lucky?”

“Are you at home?”

There was silence at Cara’s end of the line for a few beats. “Oh, god, tell me you didn’t poison him!”

“Can I come over Care?|”

Cara’s tone changed instantly. “Of course, babe, I’ll put the kettle on.”

Forty minutes later Cara had Louis settled on her sofa, cup of tea in hand. She sat quietly waiting for him to speak. Louis held his tea in both hands soaking up the familiar warmth. He wasn’t sure how to start so he went with the simple truth and hoped for the best. “Marsden’s out.”

Cara just froze. “Beg pardon?”

Louis felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. “You didn’t know.”

Before he had finished speaking Cara had her phone in her hand. “I’m going to–“ She stopped and stared at him. “You thought I knew?”

Louis shrugged one shoulder. “I wasn’t sure if your office had been included in the deal.”

Cara threw her phone back down. “You thought I would have been part of getting that monster out of prison?” She got to her feet and loomed over Louis. “I was the one who was called to the hospital that night. I was the one who had to sign off on the surgery that they said _might_ save your life. I was the one who had to call your mum and tell her what happened! I was the one who sat beside you while the only thing keeping you breathing and alive was a machine! I was there when your heart–“ She broke off on a sob. She gathered herself. “I was holding your hand when your heart stopped, and you think I–“ 

Louis stood and gathered her into his arms. “I’m sorry, love, I’m sorry.” He buried his face in her hair. He forgot sometimes how hard it had been on the people who loved him who sat by his bedside begging him not to leave them when they had no idea if he was going to live or die.

Cara hugged him back and let him lean on her for a few minutes until he seemed to have a bit more control. Then gave him a light swat on the shoulder. “That’s for thinking I wouldn’t have screamed the sky down if I knew.” She shoved him back into his seat and cuddled into his side. “Now tell me what the hell is going on.

 

Louis let himself into his flat, feeling better than he had when he left for the office. He was surprised to find the lights on and to hear voices from the kitchen, a bright laugh had him all but running into the other room. He skidded to a stop when he found his kitchen not only occupied but crowded. “Mum!”

“Louis, you’re home.” Johanna rushed to hug her eldest son. “We wanted to surprise you and found out Harry here had the same idea.” She leaned up to whisper in his ear. “He’s absolutely lovely.”

Louis gave Lottie a kiss on the cheek before he turned wide eyes on a smirking Harry standing over the stove. “Hello.” 

Harry waved the wooden spoon he was using to stir whatever it was that was making the amazing smells that filled the flat. “Surprise.” He tilted his chin toward the sitting room. “Jamie thought we should come make you supper.”

Louis glanced around the corner to see Jamie and his younger siblings watching a film. “Uh, okay?” He turned back to his mother. “And you drove all the way down here because. . .?”

“Can’t a mother just want to see her baby?”

Louis’ brows climbed his forehead. “No.”

“Fine, Dan had a meeting. So, we decided to come with him and see you. Imagine my surprise when Harry and Jamie showed up with their arms full of supplies for a home cooked meal.” She grinned brightly, just the hint of mischief in her eyes. “And wasn’t it lovely of him to offer to cook for the lot of us?”

“Yeah, he’s just lovely, he is.” He shot Harry a look only to have him shrug with a sassy grin and a wink.

“I think I’ll go see what the kids are up to.” Johanna grabbed her wine glass and all but scampered into the sitting room dragging Lottie with her.

Louis joined Harry at the stove. “Jamie, huh?”

Harry held out the spoon for Louis to taste. “Yeah, she thought you might like some company this evening, since you likely had a rough day of it.”

“Hmm, that’s amazing.” Louis savoured the delicious curry. “That’s a very considerate little girl you’re raising.” He attempted to stick a spoon in the pan only to have his hand slapped away. He pouted fiercely which only resulted in Harry dropping a kiss on his extended lip.

“I didn’t want you to come home to an empty flat, today. Seemed like company might be a good thing.”

Louis leaned his forehead onto Harry’s shoulder. “This was exactly what I needed to come home to. Thank you.”

Harry dropped a kiss on the top of Louis head then gave him a gentle shove. “Go play with the kids.”

Louis bounded into the sitting room and snuggled between the younger twins on the sofa yelling, “Cuddles!” He dragged them both close and squeezed.. “So, what are we watching?”

Ernie rolled his eyes. “They–“ he flipped his thumb toward Doris and Jamie, “wanted to watch Frozen and there’s more of them.”

Jamie jumped up from her place on the floor beside Louis’ sister Felicité. “Hi, Mister Louis, did Daddy show you what we made you for supper?” She bounced over to give him a hug. “It’s my favourite!”

Louis gave her a tight squish. “He did, he even let me taste it. It was delicious!”

She nodded happily. “He’s very good at cooking. He’s teaching me a little bit so I can cook sometimes.”

“Well, maybe once he finishes teaching you, you can teach me.”

Jamie clapped her hands and did a little jig. “Yes! I can cook for you and Daddy and Uncle Niall and Uncle Lyle and uncle Simon and–“ she pointed at the various Deakins and Tomlinsons watching the exchange with great interest. “All of you can come too!”

Jay batted her lashes at Louis. “That sounds wonderful! Doesn’t it, Lou?”

Louis wrinkled his nose at his mother but smiled brightly for Jamie. “I think it sounds about perfect.”

Jamie climbed into his lap, earning her dirty looks from his youngest siblings. “What’s your favourite thing?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure.” He looked to Doris for help. “Whadya think, Dots, what’s my favourite food?”

“Pizza!” Doris cheered.

“No!” Ernest protested, standing on the sofa and leaning on Louis’ shoulder. “Hambiggers!”

Louis pretended to consider both suggestions very carefully. “Well, they are both very yummy and I like them a lot, but I would have to say my favourite supper is Mum’s roast.”

Both twins wrinkled their noses, earning them an, “Oi!” From their mother.

“But I like pizza!”

“I don’t know how to make pizza. But I help Daddy make Sunday roast.”

Everyone turned to stare at Jamie. She was beaming up at Louis. “You could come to our house and me and Daddy could make it for you.” She held up her hand and started ticking items off. “We have roast, and potatoes and gravy, and Yorkshire pudding and,” She pulled a face. “Peas and carrots and the best part is Daddy makes something yummy for dessert!” She bounced a little and clapped her hands. “It’s very good, except the peas part.”

“And you do this every Sunday?” Jay asked with a raised brow.

“Uh huh, I mean yes. Even when Daddy is working. It’s the only day Miss Sarah let’s Daddy in her kitchen, she says we make a big mess, but we clean it up and she likes it too so we’re allowed.” She shrugged her little shoulders. “Daddy says we have to have a– um– tradshun, and his mummy used to make roast every Sunday, so that’s what we do too.”

“Doesn’t your mummy cook too?” Doris asked innocently.

Jamie shook her head. “I don’t have a mummy. She went to heaven with Daddy’s mummy.”

Doris’ eye got big and round and sad and she climbed into her own mother’s lap as Louis gave Jamie a little hug. “I would love to have Sunday roast with you and your dad.” He realised for the first time that Harry didn’t have what he did. His mother might meddle a bit and be a bit too anxious for grandchildren, but he couldn’t even for one second imagine his life without her and Harry had lost his when he was so young. “I’m going to go see if your dad needs any help with supper. You guys finish watching your film then we’ll be ready to eat, yeah?” He stood, setting Jamie into his vacated seat. Jay shot him a knowing look as he headed back into the kitchen.

“I thought I’d see if you need any help.” He joined Harry at the stove.

Harry set the spoon he was using down and pulled Louis close. “I heard what you were talking about in there. Thank you, but you didn’t really need to–“

Louis leaned up to press a kiss to Harry smile. “I know, I just forget sometimes that not everyone is as lucky as I am. She might drive me ‘round the bend sometimes, but she’s a great mum.”

“I like her. And the kids. They’re funny and boisterous, and sweet, just like you.”

Louis took a few seconds to decide whether to take offence at that description and came to the conclusion that not only was it accurate but it was mostly complimentary. He watched Harry put the finishing touches on the meal. “Is this weird?”

“Huh? I–“ Harry looked down at his handiwork on the stove. “I don’t think I made anything weird. You said you liked Indian food so . . .”

“No.” Louis chuckled at his puzzled face with it’s adorably furrowed brow. “The food looks amazing. I meant us. It just seems like everything just– fits so easily.” Louis stepped back and rearranged his hair a bit. “I usually hate the first few weeks because they can be so awkward and odd because you don’t really know the person so you’re careful and stupid and there’s been none of that and now you’re making dinner for me because you knew I had a shit day so you’re making curry for my entire family in my kitchen like you’ve been doing it for years and that should be weird but it’s not so that makes it weird!” He finished breathlessly.

“You’re weird.” Was all Harry had to say before handing him a basket. “Put this on the table and call the troops.”

Louis looked down at the basket full of warm naan and back at Harry only to find he had turned back to his cooking and was no longer paying any mind to Louis. He deposited the bread on the table and went to gather his family. He found Doris and Ernie facing off about which movie to watch next while Jamie looked on with wide-eyed fascination. “If you don’t stop fighting there will be no movie for either of you.” The twins looked up at him with big puppy dog eyes. “Please, I had that look locked down before Lottie was born. Come and eat.”

All through dinner Louis noticed Jamie keeping a watchful eye on the interactions of the Tomlinson/Deakin siblings. As was usual they squabbled and bantered with each other none of them willing to give the others an inch. It was noisy and fun and she seemed a bit taken aback by their dynamic. Finally she leaned over from her seat next to Louis. “You’re very lucky, Mister Louis.”

“Why’s that, pet?”

She waved her fork at the crowded table. “You have all them. I think I’d like to have a sister.” She nodded her head firmly and leaned over Louis to address Harry. “Daddy?”

“Yes, Bug.”

“I want a big sister.”

Louis had to work very hard to hide his grin as Harry’s mouth fell open. “Well, I uh, can’t really do much about the big, um–“

“How about you borrow us for now.” Fizzy came to his rescue. She reached across to grab Jamie’s hand. “I’d like to have another little-sister! How about you Lots?”

Lottie winked at Harry who all but sagged against Louis in relief, “I think another little-sister is a great plan.”

“Me too.” Daisy and Phoebe piped up in perfect unison.

Jamie clapped her hands happily. “Yay! Ernie and Dotty can be my little brother and sister until Daddy gives some.” She turned big hazel eyes on her now completely flustered father. “Right, Daddy?”

“Uh, sure, baby girl, whatever you say.”

Jamie returned to her meal while Harry glared at Jay and Louis, both where bright red from the effort to keep from laughing at Harry’s predicament. He leaned in closer to Louis. “You’re whole family is evil.”

Louis gave him a mischievous smile and a sweet peck on the cheek. “Aren’t they wonderful?”

 

Louis wandered into the sitting room after he and Lottie finished tidying up the kitchen to find Harry watching a film with his family. Jamie was slumped against Fizzy’s side blinking herself awake every few seconds and Ernie was sitting in front of the telly enthralled by Toy Story. But what made Louis falter at the door was the fact that Doris was sprawled across Harry’s chest, sound asleep. “Looks like everyone is about worn out.”

Jay looked up from the magazine she was reading. “I was just waiting for you to finish up before we get on our way.” She got up and made her way to where Harry and Doris were seated. “I can take her.”

Harry carefully lifted the sleeping child and handed her to her mother, He stood and stretched his arms above his head. “You’re not headed back to Donny tonight?”

Doris made a few snuffling sounds as Jay adjusted her on her shoulder. “Heavens, no. I’m taking this lot back to the hotel, Dan’s meeting us there.”

“No.”

All eyes turned to Harry. He bit his lip. “Sorry. There’s no reason for you to stay in an uncomfortable hotel when I have five unused bedrooms in my house.”

Jay began shaking her head immediately. “We couldn’t possbibly–“

Harry just took his phone out and made a call. “Hey, Ni, is Elisa still there? Perfect. I’m bringing company home tonight. Can you ask her to make sure all the bedrooms are ready to go and that all the bathrooms have extra towels.” He listened for a minute and then chuckled. “Why exactly would I need all the extra rooms if– you know what, never mind, just ask Elisa, she’ll know what we need. And if you could send Dale with the Rover to Louis’ flat that would be great. Thanks mate.” He returned his attention to Jay. “See, all done. I don’t have to actually do anything. The bedrooms are always made up and anything needs doing will be done by the amazing and efficient Elisa, so it’s not like you’d be putting me out.”

Jay started to protest but Harry was already guiding the kids toward the door. “The little ones can have a sleep over in Jamie’s room if they prefer, but there’s plenty of room for all of you.” 

Jay opened her mouth again to protest but hesitated when Louis placed his hand on her arm. “H, can I talk to you?”

Harry winked at Lottie and followed Louis back into the kitchen. “I know I don’t have to do this. So before you say anything, I want to. I like them. And even if I wasn’t already growing fond of them, I would ask them to stay because they’re yours, and you are important to me.” He presses a tender kiss to Louis’ lips. “It really isn’t a bother, I promise.”

Louis just blinked at him a few times. “Does anyone ever really get away with saying no to you?”

The answering grin was almost blinding and Harry kissed him again before bounding away to collect the family for transport.

 

Louis was awakened the next morning by his phone. He glared at Liam’s name on the caller screen for a few more rings. “If it’s bad news it can bloody wait until my alarm goes off!” He growled when he finally gave in and answered.

“Yeah, I wish it could, mate, sorry.”

Louis could hear the anger and fear in Liam’s voice. “They lost him.” It wasn’t a question.

“They lost him.”

Louis threw the covers across the room and climbed out of bed. “FOR FUCK’S SAKE!”

“Lou–“

“These fucking arseholes claim to be professionals and they can’t keep track of one scumbag for a week without him pulling a runner on them.” He banged his fist against the wall in frustration. “How the hell did they manage to fuck up this badly this fast, I mean even for them this has to be a record.”

“He cut his ankle tracker and slipped his guard.” 

Louis began grabbing clothes and throwing them on, a shower was going to have to wait. “Jesus Christ, amazing. They just let a killer walk away.” He stuffed a tie in his pocket and grabbed his jacket. “I’m on my way in, tell your fucking fiancè to meet me there.”

“Lou–“ 

“Don’t even fucking start with defending any of them, Li, not even Zayn. They fucking _knew_ what he was and didn’t care! All they could think about was what he was going to do for their close rate.” Louis slammed his flat door behind him and headed for the lift.

“Yeah, I know.” Liam’s resigned sigh pissed Louis off even further. “We’re on our way.”

Ben met Louis at the door. “I have already filed an official complaint and have let everyone who would listen know that this is not okay and that we will be leading the investigation.” He placed a hand on Louis’ shoulder. “Whatever it takes. We’re going to put this bastard back in that hole where he belongs.” He patted his shoulder once and said, “C’mon, we’re in my office.”

Louis knew Ben had them in his office hoping to contain whatever scene Louis was about to create and was grateful for the privacy. He flung open the office door and fixed Duffy with a glare. “Have you managed to screw anything else up since Liam called me?”

“Screw you Tomlinson.” Duffy started to say more but was interrupted by an older man Louis didn’t recognise.

“That’s enough, Officer Duffy.” He held his hand out to Louis. “Phillip Needham, Deputy Director, Organised Crime Command.”

Louis shook the hand reluctantly. He knew he was going to have to work with these people whether he liked it or not. Well, most of them. “I want him out.” He pointed his chin at Duffy.

“Look–“

“He will be.” Needham shut Duffy down firmly. “He’s just here to give us his report then he will be going back to the office.”

Louis nodded. “Good.” He perched on the corner of Ben’s desk. “Now, who wants to explain to me how a cop killer managed to slip out from under your noses?”

Needham straightened his shoulders. “The first thing I want to do is apologise for the way this has been handled and that you weren’t notified when Marsden was released.”

Louis was pretty sure this guy was more politician than cop and he likely had very little to do with what had happened and was here to make nice and put out fires between OCC and The Met. He nodded his acceptance of the apology. Now, what the hell happened?”

 

When he and Liam left Ben’s office an hour later, Louis was better informed but no less angry. “I’m going to put out a few feelers, see if any of my contacts have heard anything and I’m heading over to Mitch’s office to catch him and the boys up, and see what they’ve heard from their end.”

“I’m going to give Draper a call, see if he has anything.” Liam settled himself at his desk. 

Louis spent the rest of the day exhaustively running down leads and informants trying to find anyone who may know or heard anything about Marsden. He had spent hours with Mitch Wilson his old boss in Gangs and Organised Crime, trying to figure out who Marsden would contact if he had to go to ground. He had just finished speaking to one of the working girls Marsden used to spend time with when Harry’s name flashed up on his phone. He smiled as he answered. “Hey, you.”

“Hey, yourself.” Harry’s voice carried hint of laughter. “You are–“ He stopped to speak to someone in the room. “I’m on the phone with him right now. Yes, I’ll tell him, I don’t know I haven’t had the chance to ask him, someone keeps interrupting me.”

Louis laughed, all but certain he heard Fizzy’s voice on the other side of the line.

“Louis?”

“Still here.”

“Your mum and the kids are staying another night so we can have a Sunday Roast.”

“It’s Tuesday.”

“Yes it is.” Harry agreed. “Now, on you’re way home, could you stop at a store and pick up some double cream. I forgot it when I went out earlier. And Felicitè would like you to pick her up some diet coke. Something I also forgot, even though it was _NEVER ADDED TO MY LIST_ “ Harry’s raised voice was projected away from the phone.

Louis was biting his lip to keep from laughing, this was a pretty typical interaction with his second sister. “I can do that, cream and coke.”

“Double cream and diet coke or somehow it will all be my fault.”

“I can do that.” 

“Thank you.”

“Uh–“ Louis realised he may lack pertinent information. “When you say home . . “

“I have a pool, you figure it out.”

Louis finally had to laugh at that one. “Yeah, I suppose.”

“I’m all but certain the little ones are going to be permanently wrinkled, they’ve been in all day.” There was a sudden crash in the back ground. “Shit, gotta go, see you in a bit, dinner’s at six.” And he was gone.

Louis just stared at his phone for a few seconds. How the hell had this happened? He had never had anyone integrate so seamlessly into his life, not even close. It was like he’d been there all along and Louis had just now been allowed to see him. Had the blinkers lifted and could see the thing that had most been missing. It was wonderful and terrifying at the same time, but Louis was never one to give into his fear, and the wonder outstripped it by a thousand fold.

Louis made one more stop to speak to a former customer of Marsden. Fortunately for her, not so much for Louis, she had been clean and sober for two years and had no contact with her old life. Louis called Liam to let him know he was going for a dinner break and headed to the supermarket as ordered. He popped into the flower shop near by to grab something for both him mum and Harry and was on his way. Traffic was a snarl so he dictated his case notes while he sat idle in the car hoping that speaking out loud would help him see something he was missing. He tried calling Harry to let him know he might be a few minutes late, but it rang to voice mail. He finally pulled into the drive at ten minutes to six and let himself through the gate. 

He paused for a second to take in the house, not quite believing he knew someone who lived here, never mind that the someone had managed to become integral to his life in less than a month. He was just grabbing the flowers when his phone buzzed. Liam.

“Hey, mate, you got something?” He sat back in the front seat, watching the door of the house, waiting for it to pour Tomlinson-Deakin children out into the drive.

“Danny Jenkins called.”

“Jenkins.” It took Louis a second to place the name. “Guns?

“Yeah. One of his informants heard that Marsden was in the market for a handgun.”

“Perfect.” Louis sighed. “Just fucking perfect.” He scrubbed his hand over his face making a mental note that he probably needed a shave. “I don’t remember him having any connections with weapons back then, it was strictly drugs and he always carried that fucking knife. Does Jenkins have any leads on who he’d hook up with to get the gun?”

“He has his guys out shaking a few bushes right now.”

“Good.” He squeezed his eyes shut tight and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m just heading in to eat, I’ll make it as quick as I can.”

“Why, you don’t have any connections to weapons. Jenkins and his boys can handle that. Eat dinner, take a minute with your family and Harry then get back to it. I know you, you aren’t going to sleep until we catch this dick, so take this while you can. We’ve got this.”

“Yeah, I won’t be too long.”

“Eat, relax, enjoy your family, give Harry a kiss for me.” Liam hung up without saying good-bye

Louis gathered his things from the backseat an headed into the house. He knew Harry was likely busy in the kitchen and wouldn’t mind if he let himself in. “HULLOOOOOOOOOO, family, I’m home and in need of cuddles!” He was surprised there was no answer. Assuming they were all down in the pool he headed back to the kitchen to deposit his loot before heading in search of them. He rounded the corner of the kitchen and came to an immediate halt.

“Good evening, Detective-Inspector Tomlinson.”


	9. Holding Out for a Hero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An unwelcome face from the past, pays a visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on Tumblr at [Fuzzypurplestuff](http://fuzzypurplestuff.tumblr.com/)
> 
> A massive thank you to my beta/Britpickers the wonderful
> 
> [Lou](http://wariormum.tumblr.com), [Sheena](http://conscious--ramblings.tumblr.com) and Sam

Chapter 9

The flowers fell from Louis’ suddenly numb fingers and scattered across the kitchen floor. 

“Come in, we’ve been waiting for you.” Gabriel Marsden sat perched on the massive island, an automatic handgun in his lap and a smirk on his handsome face. Harry, Niall, and Louis’ family were seated around the table. Harry and Jay, each held one of the younger twins, he couldn’t see Jamie anywhere.

Louis stepped fully into the room and met his mother’s terrified eyes, he swallowed hard and took a deep fortifying breath. “Hello, Gabe, it’s been a while.” .

Marsden waved the gun. “Come, sit, join your family and pretty, new, boyfriend.” He watched Louis move carefully across the room to sit next to Harry. “Uh, uh, uh. Phone.” He jumped off the island and held out his free hand. “Slowly and carefully, other hand in the air.”

Louis drew his mobile from his pocket and held it up for Marsden to see.

“On the floor, kick it over to me.”

Louis did as he was told, then took a seat at the table . He kept his eyes on Marden as he powered down then phone the threw it in the sink. “What’s going on here, Gabe?” He kept his voice even and light, not sure just how close to the edge Marsden was.

Marsden twitched his shoulders and glared at Louis. “What’s going on?” He took a few steps closer then seemed to think better of it and retreated back to the other side of the island. “You have the nerve to ask me what’s going on?”

Louis held up his hand. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you, I’m just trying to figure out why you’re here.”

Marsden actually laughed. “You never did know when to shut up.” He leaned one hip against the island. “You like to talk so much, why don’t you tell me why you think we’re all here.”

Louis leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest, one hand scratching at his beard. “Well, if I had to venture a guess, it would be that you’re a bit pissed off at me. What I can’t quite suss out is why.”

Marsden arched one eyebrow at him. “I would think that even the simplest of idiots would have that one figured.”

“Well, then , maybe I’m not that bright and you should spell it out for me.” Louis avoided looking at the others at the table, he didn’t want to see the fear in his family’s eyes. 

“I spent two years in hell, thanks to you.” Marsden growled, showing the first cracks in his control.

“What exactly did I have to do with you ending up in Belmarsh?” Louis heard a small noise from his left and glanced away from Marsden to Harry only to find him staring steadily at the clock on the mantle. 

Marsden’s entire body twitched. “I didn’t deserve to be in that hole.” He started to pace, still keeping the island between them. “Nothing I did deserves that. I helped you guys, if it wasn’t for me you never would have grabbed Ashland!”

“I’ve been to Belmarsh, I’m not sure anyone deserves to be there.” Louis placated, hoping to take the edge off Marsden’s anger before he lost control.

“There see, you understand, it wasn’t a place where I belonged.”

“Gabe.” Louis got to his feet slowly. “Why don’t you and I go talk about this, just us, like old times, when you used to help us.” Louis knew that this was a very different Marsden from the slick con man he’d known. He kept his voice even and low. “Let the others go, they have nothing to do with this.”

“I need them.” Marsden’s eyes darted nervously around the room.

“Not the littlest ones.” Louis argued. “Let my mum take the kids out of here.”

Marsden looked at Doris and Ernie hiding their little tear-stained faces. “Yeah, and he first thing she does is ring your mates at The Met. Nah, I don’t think so.”

“She could take them into the pantry.” Harry offered quietly.

The gun swung around to Harry and it took everything Louis had in him to keep still. “What was that, pretty-boy?”

Harry’s voice shook but he still answered. “That door.” He pointed to the other side of the kitchen. “It’s a butler’s pantry. They could go in there. There’s no phone or window they could get out through.” He swallowed hard and looked up to meet Marsden’s eyes. “They’re only little, and they’re scared.” 

“I’m not letting anyone out of here!” He waved the gun again. “No one is moving.”

“But they’re just kids!”

“No!”

Louis tried desperately to catch Harry’s eye to try to get him to back off. Marsden was getting twitchier by the second. “Gabe, just the little ones, no one–“

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” 

Everyone jumped. Doris started sobbing and Ernest began to wail, loudly. Harry and Jay held the twins closer and tried to sooth them but they were terrified.

“Make them be quiet!” Marsden ordered. “I can’t hear myself think with all that fucking noise!”

“It’s not that simple, they’re afraid.” Louis watched as Harry rubbed his hand up and down Doris’ heaving back. “Let my mum take them into the pantry, then you won’t have to worry about them

“Please.”

Marsden studied Harry carefully. Then rubbed his ear with his free hand. “Because you said please, let’s have a look.” He walked backwards to the door and opened it. There was a small sink, cupboards, the extra chairs for the kitchen table, and one very small window, about two metres above the floor. “Fine. If it will shut them the hell up. You.” He pointed the gun at Jay who started and tightened her grip on Ernest. “Take them in there.” He moved away from the door.

When Jay stood with Ernest in her arms, Harry set Doris on her feet and held her hand until Jay took her other. She hesitated as she exchanged looks with her other girls. She looked over at Louis who nodded. “Go on, Mum.”

“Them too.”

Everyone turned to Marsden to find him pointing at Daisy and Phoebe. “Take them in there with you.”

Daisy swept Doris up into her arms and pulled her twin and her mother toward the pantry, giving Marsden as wide a berth as she possibly could. She all but shoved Jay and the others through the door and slammed it behind them. The lock snicking into place was loud in the silence.

“Now that the wee ones are out of the way, we can have that chat.” Marsden retook his place leaning against the island and began tapping the barrel of the gun against the marble. “I was surprise when I saw you on the telly being the big shining hero, saving little girls and trying it on with pop stars.” He winked at Harry. “You’re a bit popular where I’ve been, you are.”

“I get a good bit of fan mail from prisoners.” 

Louis had to bite his tongue when Harry started to speak and was relieved when Marsden laughed. “I like him.” He stopped laughing when he faced Louis again. “We still have the problem of why I was there.”

Now that the children were out of the way Louis felt he had a lot more room to work. “It’s a very simple concept. You killed a man, Gabe, and you tried to kill me.” He moved a step closer. “We worked with you, helped you, and you tried to kill me.”

Marsden twitched and rolled his shoulder. “I had no choice. Ashland found out about me, and tried to kill me, you said you’d protect me!”

“He found out about you because you made a move on his territory.” Louis argued evenly. “It had nothing to do with us.”

“No! He found out I was working with you! That’s why! He found out I was helping you!”

“How could he have found out Gabe?” Louis asked reasonably, keeping his voice even. “Do you think we told him? Months of work. Of undercover, of surveillance, wire taps, and we threw it all away and turned on you?”

Marsden scrubbed his hand over his face. “It– how else? No one knew!”

“Gabe, think about it.” Louis moved another step closer. “Why would we have done that?”

“Money! You know Ashland has cops on his payroll, you helped bust them!”

“So did you!” 

“And you turned on me!”

Another step. “No, we didn’t, I promise you, if Ashland knew you’d been turned, it wasn’t me, or Adam.”

Marsden raised the gun again. “Get back!”

Louis raised his hands in front of him and retreated back to his seat, he looked at the others and found Harry once again, looking at the clock. Louis was shocked to see it was only five past, it felt as though they had been there for hours. “Gabe–“

“They’re going to come you know.” All heads swivelled in Harry’s direction.

“Har–“

“What? Who– what the hell are you talking about?” Marsden swung the gun to point at Harry.

“The police.” Harry waved in Louis general direction but very carefully didn’t look at him. “Louis was only meant to stop in to say hello, we knew he couldn’t stay for dinner.” 

“So?”

“He’s going to be expected back at the station and when he doesn’t show up, they’ll try calling his mobile, which, since you switched it off, will go directly to voice mail.”

Marsden glanced nervously at where all the mobiles rested in the sink. “They’ll just think he decided to stay, his family–“

“Yeah, of course. They all know that Louis is the type to slack off an important man hunt. They won’t think anything of him turning off his mobile while on duty.” Harry agreed sarcastically, one eyebrow arched.

Marsden started to fidget and Louis tried desperately to catch Harry’s eye. He knew Marsden was teetering on the edge and he was terrified Harry was going to push him over it.

“What do you think is going to happen if you’re still here when they get here?”

Marsden began switching the gun from hand to hand. “I’ve got all of you.”

“Yeah, you do. But that isn’t going to end well, is it.”

“Not for you.”

Harry got to his feet and Louis gripped the arms of his chair so tight his knuckles turned white, he was certain everyone in the room could hear his heart hammering in his chest. “Harry–“ 

Once again Harry went on as though he hadn’t heard him. “Not for anyone, and you know it.” He cautioned. “You’re smart enough to know how bad things will go if you’re here, with that gun, in my house, holding six children hostage.”

“They won’t do anything as–“

“But if you were to leave now, out the back, through the garden to the east lane, no one would even know you’ve been.”

Louis reached out to grab Harry’s hand only to find it sweat soaked and trembling.

Marsden looked from Harry to the back door and then to Louis. “I owe him!” He waved the gun back and forth between them.

“Is he worth getting caught and thrown back in Belmarsh?”

Marsden steadied the gun levelling it at Harry. “I’m not going back there!”

“Then go!” Harry all but shouted. “If you leave now, you’ll have a good head start on them! You can get out of the country, go somewhere safe.”

Louis squeezed Harry’s hand as hard as he could trying everything he could to get him to stop without antagonising Marsden further. “Gabe, if you turn yourself–“

The gun came back ‘round to Louis. “SHUT UP! I CAN’T FUCKING THINK!” He once again began to pace the length of the kitchen. “But he needs to pay!”

“You don’t have time, Gabe.” Harry’s voice was soft, cajoling. “You need to look after yourself, not worry about him.” They all watched as Marsden’s eyes once again flickered to the door. “Go! Run!”

Before Louis knew what was happening Marsden was out the door and running. Louis bolted for the door in time to see Marsden round a corner of the wall and disappear. He dove for his phone and while he was waiting impatiently for it to power up he rounded on Harry who had collapsed in his chair and had his face in his shaking hands. “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ALL ABOUT! HAVE YOU LOST–“ He was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening.

“Daddy! We’re home!” Jamie skipped into the kitchen followed by Harry’s friend Lou and her daughter, Lux. “We brought the dessert, like you asked, and I’m still hungry because I left room for Sunday roast. I only had a very small piece of cake.” Jamie skidded to a halt when she saw the adults. “Are you mad? We’re only a little bit late. Luxy got cake on her dress.”

 

Louis finished giving his statement to Ben and went in search of Harry. He found him with Liam in his study, they were just wrapping things up. “Thanks, Harry.” Liam closed his notebook and smiled at Louis where he leaned in the doorway. “He’s all yours.” 

Louis came fully into the room as Liam passed him with a pat on the shoulder. He moved to sit on the table in front of Harry. “Mum and Lou are with Jamie.”

“Thanks, I just need a minute.” Harry muttered softly, he had his head down, with his fingers tangled in his hair. 

“Harry?” Louis reached out to touch his shoulder and was shocked to find him trembling.

Harry finally raised his head and Louis was taken aback to see tears in his eyes. “I had to do something! I couldn’t let her walk in on him. I had to get him out of here before she got home.” He wiped his eyes on his sleeve. “I know what he did to you, and I’m so sorry–“

“Shhh.” Louis cupped Harry’s cheek. “You were protecting your daughter, I would have done exactly the same thing.”

Harry dropped his head to Louis knees. “I couldn’t let her see that, not again, not after. . .” His voice trailed off brokenly.

“I know.” Louis ran his hand through the long curls hiding Harry’s face. “I know. I don’t blame you, not for a second. You got him out of there and everyone is safe.” He leaned over to press a kiss behind Harry’s ear. “That’s the important thing.” 

They stayed like that, Louis folded over Harry, running his hand over his back and shoulders, the only sound their breathing, until the trembling stilled. Louis pulled back as Harry sat up and blew out a hard breath. “Thank you.” He picked up Louis’ hand and kissed his knuckles. “Are you going to get in trouble?”

“No, as far as we’re concerned, this was a successful resolution to a hostage situation.”

“But he got away?”

Louis reversed the grip on their hands and leaned in close. “But no one got hurt. All ten hostages were removed from the situation with no bodily injury.”

“You sound like a press release.”

“That’s because it is a press release. It’s what Ben is going to say to them in about ten minutes.”

“Ben?”

“I forgot, you two never met. My SIO, DCS Ben Winston.”

“So you’re not in trouble.”

“No, I’m not in trouble.”

Harry’s smile was a bit unsteady but the worst of it seemed to have abated. “I need to see Jamie.”

Louis got to his feet, pulling Harry up with him. “Come one, she upstairs with mum and the kids.”

Harry swayed slightly on his feet. “Whoa!” He steadied himself against Louis. 

Louis wrapped an arm around his waist. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just gonna have the shakes and spins for a bit.”

Louis arched a questioning brow.

“I’m more than familiar with what it feels like to come down off an adrenalin rush.”

“Yeah, I guess you would be.”

Harry pulled him into his arms and buried his face in Louis shoulder. “Thank you.”

Louis held him close. “Thank you.” 

 

Louis watched from the doorway as Harry tucked Jamie up in bed and sang her a song. It was quite beautiful watching them together, the complete trust and devotion they shared. Jamie had been subdued all evening, having heard from Doris and Ernest about Marsden, in spite of the adult’s attempts to keep the information away from her. She had cried when she found out another bad man had been in her house, she had clung to Harry, only relenting when he had told her there were two policemen outside, protecting them and that Dale was staying in the house. Louis was certain that was the only reason Harry had been able to get her to go to bed, that and Fizzy agreeing to sleep in her room.

“Thank you Fizzy.”

Felicitè smiled at him from her spot on the trundle bed, her phone illuminating her face. “My pleasure.”

“Night, loves.”

“Night night, daddy.”

“G’night Harry.” 

Fizzy and Jamie answered at the same time, then giggled softly.

Harry flipped the nightlight on as he left the room to join Louis in the hall. He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. “Fuck I’m tired.”

“Yeah., me too.” Louis tangled his fingers with Harry’s and leaned into his chest.

Harry wrapped his other arm around him. “Stay?”

Louis nodded, nuzzling into Harry’s throat. “Yeah.”

They stayed like that, just leaning on each other, being quiet together, that was how Jay found them a few minutes later. “I’m sorry.” She started to back down the hallway.

Louis stepped back from Harry and reached out for her. “No, mum, it’s okay, do you need me?”

“No, I just wanted to speak to Harry for a moment.”

Louis tilted his head slightly, studying his mother. “Mum. . ..”

Jay just smiled softly at Harry. “I just wanted to thank you for convincing that horrible man to let me and my babies go.” She cupped his face and went up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “You were incredibly brave.”

Much to Louis’ surprise Harry blushed crimson. “It was more Louis than me.”

“My son is one of the bravest people I know. But that doesn’t mean what you did was any less amazing.” She tucked his hair behind his ear. “Thank you.”

Harry blushed again. “You’re welcome.”

Jay patted his cheek before tuning to face Louis. “We’re all turning in. The kids are in with me and Daisy and Phoebe are bunking with Lottie, none of us really wants to be alone.” She glanced briefly at Harry before asking. “Are you heading home, boo?”

It took considerable effort for Louis to not roll his eyes at his mother’s complete lack of subtlety. “No, mum, I’m staying here.” 

Jay’s smile was bright and mischievous. “That’s wonderful, I can make us all breakfast. If Harry doesn’t mind?” 

Harry returned her smile. “That would be lovely. Thank you, Jay.”

She kissed their cheeks before she headed back down the hallway, a bit more spring in her step than when she’d arrived.

Louis titled his head back and stared at the ceiling with sigh, then glared at Harry when he started to giggle. “Shut up, you.”

Harry grabbed his hand and pulled him down the hall. “C’mon, you need tea.”

“Yes please.”

The house was completely silent as they took their tea in the solarium, everyone having turned in early. They settled into the massive, deep, cushion covered, sofa that dominated the room. Louis leaned back against Harry’s shoulder. “Do you ever miss the stars?”

“Hmm?” Harry tilted his head to look up through the glass ceiling “Yeah, I do. When I first came to London it was strange to look up at night and see nothing. When we go up to the Cheshire house Jamie and I will lie out in the garden and look at them. She loves the mythology.”

Louis sat up quickly and turned to look at Harry. “Stars Alight was about you and Jamie!” 

“Yeah.” Harry closed his eyes and pulled Louis back into his arms. “Got a bit weird when everyone kept talking about how it was one of the most romantic songs they’d ever heard.”

“You wrote a song about telling the stories of the stars to the person you love most.” Louis chuckled.

“I know, but–“

“Isn’t that what’s so great about music, one song can mean something completely different to every person who hears it?”

“Now you’re quoting me?” Harry dug his fingers into Louis’ ribs.

“OI!” Louis squirmed, trying to get out of reach. “None of that!” He twisted until he and Harry were face to face. “I know several different ways to kill a man with my bare hands.”

“Hmmm?” Harry buried his face in Louis’ throat and nibbled gently on the pulse point he found. “Is that right?”

Louis laid back pulling Harry down on top of him. “Aye. At least three.” He moaned softly as Harry ran his tongue over his jaw.

“Fascinating.” Harry purred in his ear his already deep voice gone gravely with lust. “I’ve been told I’m pretty good with my hands.” He ran his hand down Louis’ chest to his abdomen, making the taught muscles jump. “What do you think, deadly, or no?” 

Louis tangled his hands in Harry’s long curls and forced his head up to meet his mouth in a deep kiss. Louis was sure his bones were beginning to liquify, he had never in his life had someone’s voice affect him this way. The fact that he finally had Harry’s hands on him was bad enough, but add that voice! 

Harry broke the kiss and sat up suddenly, laughing when Louis whined pitifully. “Don’t worry, I agree completely. But there are–“ He ticked off on his fingers. “Five children under eighteen in this house and I would rather not scar any of them for life.”

“I bet you bedroom door has a lock.”

Harry nodded happily. “And it’s on the other side of the house from everyone else.”

Louis hopped up off the bench then winced. He wrinkled his nose at Harry when he laughed. “Yeah, laugh it up, but I gotta be more comfortable than those damn jeans you’re wearing.”

Harry got carefully to his feet. “Yeah, safe bet.” He grabbed Louis’ hand and dragged him out of the solarium. 

They made their way through the kitchen where Harry peeked around the corner causing Louis to giggle. “Coast is clear.” Harry led him across the foyer on tiptoes, giggling all the way.

“Things okay boss?”

Harry and Louis both shrieked and spun around to see Dale standing in the door of the study. “Jesus, fuck, Dale!” Harry had his free hand on his chest. “Are you _trying_ to give me a heart attack?”

Dale shrugged. “I heard something and thought it would be a good idea to check it out.” His mouth twisted into a smirk. “Though everyone had turned in.” He looked from Harry to Louis and back. “Didn’t mean to– interrupt.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Thank you for your diligence.”

“Just doing my job, Boss”

“Shut up.”

Dale laughed again. “Night, H, Louis.” He turned and went back into the study.

Louis watched the door he’d disappeared through. “He doesn’t sleep?”

Harry continued up the stairs pulling Louis behind him. “He and Alberto, I don’t think you’ve met him, are switching off.” 

“Can’t hurt to have big scary guys hanging around.”

“Hmm.” Harry dragged him down the hall to his bedroom door, kicked it open and all but shoved Louis into the room, slamming the door behind them he flipped the lock and leaned against it. “Made it!” 

Louis chuckled and pulled Harry toward him. “Feeling a little anxious love?”

“It’s been _weeks_! Every time I get my hands on you we get interrupted.” Harry growled his voice rough.

“Believe me.” .Louis breathed. “I noti– ced.” His voice cracked when Harry began to unbutton his shirt.

“Hmm.” Harry pushed the shirt of Louis’ shoulders and started walking him backward toward the bed. He traced a finger down Louis’ chest to his waist. He undid his belt and pulled it free of the loops with a cheeky smirk. 

Louis felt the back of his legs hit the bed and he let himself fall back, grabbing Harry’s shirt as he went, and pulling him down on top of him. Harry landed with his hands on either side of Louis and their lips just inches apart. Louis could both feel and hear Harry’s laboured breathing. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Harry dipped down and covered Louis mouth with his own. 

Louis ran his nails down Harry’s back and was gratified to feel him tremble. He could hear his own heart pounding in his ears and feel the room start to spin. He brought one hand around to work on the button of Harry’s jeans, He was disappointed when Harry’s mouth slipped away. He sighed when his lips trailed down nipping as he went. But the disappointment didn’t last as Harry’s sharp teeth scraped his nipples, on their way past lavishing kisses on them as though to repair the sting.

“Jesus, Harry,” Louis moaned, his hands tangled in Harry’s hair relishing the weight of the other man on body . His taught stomach jumped and quivered as Harry pressed a kiss to his belly button, pausing only to remove his shirt. When he returned to his duties he lavished kisses on Louis’ bellybutton sucking a love bite into the soft skin beside it, all while he went to work on Louis’ far too snug dress pants, he had just begun to pull the zip when something distracted him.

The soft knock on the door barely penetrated Louis’ consciousness, but Harry was instantly alert. The tiny voice, however got Louis’ attention.

“Daddy?’

Harry rolled off him immediately. “Really?” He got up and pulled his shirt on and threw Louis a t-shirt. He watched him fasten his trousers while he threw on a robe to cover his very obvious reaction to their little romp. He glanced over at Louis and waited for his go ahead nod before opening the bedroom door. “What’s up, Bug?”

Jamie stood there in her Tarzan pyjamas, shuffling her feet. “Bonkers had a bad dream.” 

Harry quirked an eyebrow at the bored looking, large, fluffy, grey cat she held as he knelt in front of them. “Having a problem, are we, Bonkers.” He scratched the cat’s head and returned his attention to his daughter. “Do you think, it would make Bonkers feel better if he slept with me?”

Another toe shuffle. “Uh huh.”

“Okay.” Harry took the huge cat from her arms. “There we go. Bonkers will be safe with me.” He stood up and made to close the door.

“Uh, Daddy?”

Harry turned back to her. “Yes, Bug.”

She looked down at her feet and muttered softly “You know Bonkers can’t sleep if I’m not there.”

Louis had kept quiet and to the side out of Jamie’s eye line, when Harry winked a t him over the cat’s head he joined them. “Do you think Bonkers could sleep in here if you were here too?”

Jamie’s eyes widened dramatically. “Mister Louis!” 

“Hi, Jamie.”

She looked back and forth between Harry and Louis. “Are you here to keep my daddy safe?”

“Uhh–“ He glanced at Harry helplessly.

“Mister Louis and I were having a sleep over.” Harry rescued him.

Jamie contemplated them seriously for a moment. “Oh.”

Louis knelt in front of her. “I have an idea. Since you’re here now, you and Bonkers can look after your dad and I can go sleep in one of the other rooms.” He titled his head to get a better look at her face and found a sad little pout. “Would that be better?”

She threw herself at him in a tight hug that almost knocked him off his feet. “Thank you Mister Louis!” She let go and bounced over to the bed climbing up and holding her arms out for her cat.

Harry set the cat in Jamie’s lap. “I’m going to go– uh– show Mister Louis to his room. Will yo– Bonkers be okay for a couple of minutes?” 

She nodded and snuggled into the pillow pulling her cat close to her. “We’ll be okay, Daddy. Night, Mister Louis.”

“Night, little one, sleep tight.” Louis waited and watched as Harry pressed a kiss to Jamie’s forehead before following him into the hall. Louis couldn’t help it, he began to giggle as soon as the door closed at Harry’s back. 

“Oh, shut up.” Harry grumbled.

Harry’s thoroughly put out expression just set Louis of further, it really was like someone was out to get them, even if that someone was an eight kilo ball of fluff, He cackled all the way to the guest room on the other side of the house as Harry muttered and grumbled to himself. He turned to Harry when they go to the room. “Maybe next time we should try my place again, we turn off all our phones, and lock the doors?”

“Yes, please.” Harry drew him into his arms and covered his mouth with a kiss that was both searing and a bit desperate. “When?”

“Hmmm.” Louis buried his hands in Harry’s hair and went up on his toes trying to get as close as he could.

Louis made a keening sound deep in his throat as Harry stopped and stepped back. “Shit, you need to stop that.”

“What’d I do?” Louis whined trying to pull Harry back to him

Harry took another step back held up his hands and drew in a deep breath and blew it out slowly, clearly trying to regain at least some control over himself. “I have to go or she’ll come looking for me.”

“Yeah, okay, that’s– yeah.”

Harry took a long stride forward, pressed a bone melting kiss to Louis lips one last time and bolted from the room slamming the door behind him.

Louis sank onto the bed, his knees slightly wobbly. “Okay, cold shower it is.”


	10. Just the Two of Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on Tumblr at [Fuzzypurplestuff](http://fuzzypurplestuff.tumblr.com/)
> 
> A massive thank you to my beta/Britpickers the wonderful
> 
> [Lou](http://wariormum.tumblr.com), [Sheena](http://conscious--ramblings.tumblr.com) and Sam
> 
> Sorry this one took so long, it fought me tooth and nail and I am in the middle of moving. Hope it was worth the wait.

Louis was standing staring at the massive map of the city of London. They had thrown a wide net over the city within minutes of Marsden running out of Harry’s house the night before. Every port, station, motorway, and airport was covered. But Louis knew that was only effective if Marsden was actually trying to get out of London. He had run, but he had unfinished business and not just with Louis. He’d been removed from the case, much to his displeasure, which he had shared freely and loudly with anyone and everyone he thought responsible, but they had all refused to budge. He was no longer a cop, he was a victim and a target and was to be under twenty-four hour protection. He knew in his heart they were right but that did nothing to alleviate the frustration and helplessness he was feeling.

“Hey, Lou.” Liam dropped his bag on the table on joined Louis at the map. “How you holding up?”

“They’ve put me on paid leave and given me a baby sitter.” He snapped. “Ben was _generous_ enough to _let_ me come in and finish up my paperwork.”

“Lou, come on. . ..”

“Oh, fuck off, Li!” Louis threw the file he was holding onto the table and turned to face his partner. “It’s bullshit! I’m a hell of a lot safer here than I would be at home!”

“I know but–“

“No fucking buts! No one knows that prick better than I do!”

“He tried to kill you, Louis.”

Louis shook his head adamantly. “No, he didn’t.” He picked the file up again. “This is everyone’s statement from yesterday.” He handed the file to Liam. “Have you read them all?”

“Of course I have.”

“And nothing strikes you as a bit strange?”

“Lou, get to the point.”

“If he wanted me dead, I’d be dead.”

“But–“

“No! He had me there in front of his gun for over twenty minutes. All he did was rant. If he wanted me dead, he could have taken his shot the minute I walked in the room, or laid in wait for me outside or any other time during the almost half hour he had me at his mercy. He had a gun, Liam, at close range, he had a gun!”

“He tried to kill you before, Lou, he did kill Adam.”  


“Yes, thank you, I was there.” Louis snipped, getting fed up with Liam’s calm reasoning. “But he was also high as a kite that night and Ashland was on his tail.” He held up a hand to forestall Liam’s protest. “None of that excuses it, but it does explain why he didn’t take a shot at me last night. He had almost everyone I love in that kitchen and no one got hurt. Scared, yes, but not so much as a bruise, he even let mum and the kids leave the room.”

“So what are you saying, that he’s not dangerous?” Liam asked incredulously.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, of course he’s dangerous! He’s an escaped addict with a gun!” Louis pointed at the folder. “I’m saying that I don’t think anything in there indicates he’s a real danger to me.”

Liam waved the folder. “He held you and your family hostage at gunpoint!”

“Again, I was there! And no one has as much as a scratch!”

“And I think you’re just trying to get back to work!”

“No! Well, yeah, I want to come back to work, but that’s not it. If he wanted to kill me he could have, I think some how in his head he really believes I betrayed him when I testified against him.”

“He stabbed you!”

“Yes, he did. But like I said, he was high and scared, so in his mind he probably thinks he was justified.”

‘So when he gets high and scared now and decides that instead of looking for an explanation he should just finish what he started next time?”

Louis didn’t really have a come back for that one. He knew Liam was right but that didn’t make being benched any easier or as far as he was concerned the right decision. “Do you really think I’m safer on leave than I am here? That I’ll be easier to protect when I have some spotty faced constable following me around, or when I’m with my experienced partner and team?” He argued stubbornly.

Liam rolled his eyes. “Take it up with Ben.”

“I did, he ignored me and told that if I didn’t stop bugging him about it he’d send me home and Tarville would do my paperwork.”

“Well, then if that doesn’t convince you. . .”

“Oh, fuck off.” Louis sagged into a chair and whined. “I don’t wanna go home.”

“Yeah, well I don’t wanna go to your fucking funeral!” Liam’s calm facade finally broke.  


That brought Louis up short. “I–“

“No, this is bullshit, you don’t get to hang a target on your back and then go on like nothing’s happening!”

Louis jumped to his feet. “No! No, that is not what I’m doing and you know it. I don’t even care if I’m on the street, I need to be here working!”

Liam turned his back on him to once again study the map. “Go home, Louis.”

Louis sniffed. “Fine. I’ll leave.” He made for the door then smirked and turned around. “You can finish up the paperwork, right, partner?” With a wave he left.

 

“Give me the keys, Constable.”

“But sir–“

“There are only two options, you can either give me the keys, or I walk two blocks that way, catch my train, and you get to explain it all to DCS Winston.” Louis crossed his arms over his chest and stared down the young uniformed officer who had the misfortune to be assigned as his shadow for the day.

“Sir, DCS Winston was very clear that I am not to let you out of my sight and I intend to do my job.” Constable Michael Denny had about four stone and almost a full head on Louis, but only about a third the attitude.

“Mhmm, good, lad. Now give me the keys.” Louis held out his hand.

“But sir–“

“Did DCS Winston say you had to be my chauffeur?” 

“Well, not explicitly, but–“

“Keys.” 

Denny could clearly identify a losing argument when he saw one and handed the keys over with a resigned sigh.

“Great!” Louis opened the driver’s door and chirped, “Hop in if you must. I have a few things I need to do.”

“Sir, don’t–“

“First, since you’re going to be hanging out with me, drop the sir, it’s just Louis. Second, if I can’t work I’m not going to hole up in me flat until they catch Marsden, understood?” 

Another heaving sigh. “Yes, sir.”

Louis smiled happily as he pulled out of the car park, he was all about small victories right now.

They spent the rest of the morning running errands, from picking up Louis’ suits at the cleaners to replenishing his cereal supply, when they pulled up in front of Harry’s studio just after noon, Denny looked at the large open car park and the dozens of fans lined up outside the gate and balked. “Sir, this is not a safe situation.”

Louis’ eyebrows shot up as he took in the group of teenagers. “Uh, they’re just fans,” He started to open the door. “What are they going to do, Snapchat me to death?” He headed to the studio, Denny hot on his heals. “It’s fine.” 

Denny caught up to him as he entered the building and approached the desk. “Sir–“

Louis held up his hand as he spoke to the guard at the desk. “Louis Tomlinson to see Harry Styles.”

The guard checked his clipboard. “They’re in studio four, down the left hall, it’s at the end on the right.”

“Thanks, mate.” Louis took of at a trot. 

“Sir!” Denny hurried down the hall after his charge. 

The red in-session light was on above the door so Louis held his finger to his lips as he and Denny entered the studio. Harry was behind the glass at the microphone, he grinned broadly and waved when he saw Louis. He said something into the mic and one of the men at the soundboard nodded and turned to Louis and Denny. “Hey, take a seat, we’ll just be a few more minutes.”

Louis and Denny settled into the sofa. Louis was happily surprised when he could hear Harry singing. The song was upbeat and bouncy with lines about butterflies and summertime and Louis couldn’t help but smile. 

Harry did a few more takes before stripping off the headphones and bounding out of the booth to greet Louis. “Hi!” He hugged him and gave him a quick peck on the mouth. “I wasn’t expecting to see you! What a great surprise!” He dragged Louis over to the board. “Julian, this is Louis!”

The man at the board stood. He smiled and grabbed Louis’ hand. “Julian Bunetta, it’s an honour.”

Louis flushed slightly. “Nice to meet you.”

“Thank you for bringing our girl home.” Julian pumped Louis’ hand enthusiastically. 

“Just doing my job.” Louis shot a pleading look at Harry but got no help from that quarter, just a wink.

“Yeah, well your job is fucking amazing!” 

Harry’s grin was smug as he wrapped an arm around Louis’ waist and pressed a kiss to his temple. “Get used to it, love.” He raised a brow in Denny’s direction. “And who is your tall friend?”

“This is Denny, my new pet constable!” Louis said with a game show flourish.

Harry rolled his eyes and held out a hand to Denny. “I’m Harry, nice to meet you. I take it you’re his security detail?” When Denny nodded Harry tilted his head in Louis’ direction. “Did you piss someone off or lose a bet?”

“OI!”

“It’s nice to meet you too, sir.” Denny shook his hand.

“It’s Harry.”

“O– okay.” Denny stuttered. “I’m, Michael– Mickey.”

“Welcome to the studio, Mickey, this is Julian, songwriter and producer extraordinaire. Julian this is Mickey, he lost a bet.” He grinned at Louis who had his arms crossed over his chest and an exaggerated pout on his face.

“You could be traded in, you know.” Louis sulked.

“Nope.” Harry dropped a kiss on the drooping bottom lip. “Not gonna let you go.”

Julian sidled up next to Denny. “Do you think we should leave them alone?”

Both Louis and Harry turned to glare at them as Denny answered with a grin. “No, sir, I can’t leave DI Tomlinson alone for even a second.”

Harry blinked at him then turned back to Louis with a squawk. “What?”

It was Louis’ turn to roll his eyes. “He’s kidding.” He raised one brow at Denny. “Young Denny will be nearby, but not in my pocket. Right, Constable?”

“I’m just following DCS Winston’s orders.” Denny had to work to keep the grin off his face. “Sir.”

 

Louis watched Harry bustle busily around the kitchen. “You really do like this don’t you?” He plucked a mushroom off the plate of crudités that Harry had set out. They had decided to settle at Harry’s for the evening after much argument with Denny who hadn’t been pleased with the choice since Marsden had already attacked them there once. When Louis had pointed out that the only reason Marsden was able to get in was because Harry had been in the process of upgrading his security system, an upgrade which now completed, put half the prisons in the country to shame, Denny had relented. 

“I love to cook.” Harry added a dash of something to the pan. “My mum and I used to cook all the time, she had a special stool for me to stand on when I was really little so I could help her stir.” His smile softened. “She said things tasted better when I helped.” 

“Jamie said you guys cook together.”

“We do, when we’re home, on the road it’s a bit tougher but I still try to cook a couple of times a week.”

“Speaking of the little miss, where’d she get off to?”

“Another sleep over party.” Harry pulled something out of the oven. 

“She has more of a social life than I do!” Louis exclaimed.

“Me too.” Harry chuckled. “I hate being away from her, but she doesn’t get to do normal kid stuff when we’re on the road, so I try to let her do as much as possible when we’re here.”

“I bet people would be shocked to find out one of your favourite thing to do is cook with your six-year-old.”

“They’d probably really be shocked to find out that for a while, I considered becoming a pastry chef.”

Louis’ eyebrows shot up. “Just in case the whole popstar thing doesn’t work out?”

“Cute.” Harry placed a plate of something small and delicate looking on the island. 

“Here try these, I kind of fiddled with the recipe a bit.” He went back to the stove. “When I was still at college, I was serious about culinary school, then X-Factor happened and well....”

Louis picked up one of the perfectly golden little bites and popped it into his mouth. “Oh my god!” He closed his eyes and savoured the flavour.

“Good?”

Louis shook his head and held up his hand. “Shhh, I’m having a moment.”

Harry chuckled. “Well, I’m glad my fiddling worked then.”

“That is amazing!”

“Thank you.”

“Are you blushing?”

“No!”

“You are!” Louis’ smile softened and his heart clenched. “People literally scream themselves raw over you and your music, and you blush when I compliment your cooking.”

“Well, yeah, it’s you.”

That wiped the smirk off Louis face. “I–“ He had to clear his throat. “That’s– Really?”

Harry set the spoon down and came around the island to stand between Louis’ knees. He ran the back of his hand gently over Louis’ scruffy cheek. “ Why are you surprised?”

Louis shrugged one shoulder and leaned into the hand on his face. “I don’t know, I guess I’m just a bit– I’m not sure, you have people telling you how amazing you are all the time, I guess I’m kind of surprised it makes a difference.”

“That’s true, and I am very lucky that people like me and my music, and I get a huge thrill when I go on stage and get the reaction I do.” His hand moved again to cup Louis cheek. “But this isn’t even close.” He leaned in close enough that Louis could see the tiny gold flecks in his green eyes and feel his warm breath on his face. “I’m not falling in love with any of them.” He whispered huskily.

Louis felt all the air leave his lungs and the blood rush to his face, it all resulted in a slightly dizzy, floaty feeling and he had to close his eyes to try to get control back. He could feel Harry standing very still, his only movement his thumb running gently over Louis’ cheekbone. Louis had to swallow twice before he felt like he could even begin to speak, he opened his eyes to find Harry smiling sweetly down at him.

“Hi there.” There was the faintest tension around Harry’s eyes.

“You really know how to sweep a guy off his feet don’t you.” Louis' voice sounded embarrassingly squeaky to his own ears.

“I try.” Harry placed a whisper-soft kiss on the corner of Louis’ mouth. “You okay with that?”

Louis turned his head to capture that luscious mouth in a real kiss. “Hmm. Which one? Being swept off my feet?” Another kiss, this one even deeper. “Or the most beautiful man I’ve ever known telling me he feels the same way I do?”


End file.
